03/10/2026
We like to be fiesty pot-stirrers sometimes.
Today, it's about the Potomac River. Here's a picture of Roosevelt Island which is in the Potomac River between DC and the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, VA. It's managed by the National Park Service. Like much of the banks of the Potomac around DC-Arlington, it's been more or less left to fester. Invasive vines and brambles taking over the understory, no visible wetlands or constructed wetlands, no grasses on the island perimeter.
Further down you'll see concrete bulkheads, riprap stone, mowed grass to the edge, and a few trees.
We bring this up because a lot of posts and write ups have been made about the Potomac river sewer spill with many advocates clamoring for "accountability," "long term study," and "more transparency." What we have not seen from folks like Potomac Conservancy or Potomac Riverkeeper Network is calls for specific, concrete, actionable, proven remediation solutions that could be enacted within weeks using local, state, commercial, and nonprofit resources.
The data is there to show that nature based interventions: shoreline grasses, wetland grasses, and bivalve introduction all filter pollutants. Heck, we'd donate $1,000 in plants - purchased at wholesale cost - tomorrow to any group that's going to engage in phytoremediation projects on the Potomac River to help with this spill.
The shores of the Potomac in DC/Northern VA - like most of the Dept of Interior and NPS land in the DC region - have been overrun with invasive plants, vines, with little to no plans to remediate.
Let's call for the solutions that work and that we can enact now.
