[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 8, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1165-E1166]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    THE POTOMAC--AN ENDANGERED RIVER

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 8, 1999

  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Congressional 
Sportsmen's Caucus and District of Columbia Appropriations 
Subcommittee, I am deeply concerned about the environment in and around 
our nation's capital.
  Two years ago the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus held a monthly 
informational briefing on fishing in the Washington, D.C. area. 
Following that briefing I submitted for the record an article written 
by Charles Verharen, a Professor at Howard University and avid local 
fisherman, that highlighted threats to the Potomac River fishery.
  At the request of local fishermen, a study on the impact of sediment 
discharge on anadromous fish was initiated by the U.S. Fish and

[[Page E1166]]

Wildlife Service (FWS), with the Maryland Department of Natural 
Resources, the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin, the 
District of Columbia Fish and Wildlife, and the National Marine 
Fisheries Service. The report concludes that this sediment discharge is 
causing a significant adverse impact to anadromous fish during the 
spawning season.
  I have attached another article by Charles Verharen that describes 
the impact of this environmental problem. In addition, I have enclosed 
the summary of recommendations from the Fish and Wildlife Service 
report to update my colleagues on the problems facing the Potomac River 
environment.***HD***JOE FLETCHER'S FISH STORY

                         (By Charles Verharen)

       Joe Fletcher is tempted to cry over his beloved river. And 
     a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report claims he has 
     good reason.
       Joe and his family have rented fishing boats on the Potomac 
     at Fletcher's Boat House for three generations. One of Joe's 
     favorite stories--not about a fisherman but a ferry 
     passenger--shows why he's sad.
       Joe's story starts in colonial times when the Potomac was 
     one of the greatest fisheries in the world. George Washington 
     owned highly profitable commercial fishing rights on the 
     Potomac near Mount Vernon. The king of all fish in the 
     Potomac was the sturgeon, ranging up to ten feet in length 
     and weighing over four hundred pounds. Potomac caviar was a 
     delicacy prized around the world.
       In colonial Washington, the only way across the Potomac was 
     by ferry. One time a sturgeon leaped out of the water and 
     landed on a Georgetown passenger sitting in a small ferry's 
     stern. The fish was so huge that it crushed the man's hip and 
     he died from the injury several weeks later.
       Joe's doubly sad when he tells this story--sad about the 
     passenger and sad that sturgeon leap out of the Potomac no 
     more. But now Joe's got something else to be sad about. He 
     fears that the sturgeon's fate threatens rockfish (striped 
     bass) and shad, abundant at Fletcher's Cove even in times 
     when the Potomac was one of the most polluted rivers in 
     America.
       Ironically, Joe blames this new threat of extinction on 
     pure water. The Washington Aqueduct drinking water treatment 
     plant discharges the equivalent of up to twenty five dump-
     truck loads of aluminum and copper sulfates and other waste 
     material into the Potomac above Chain Bridge every day as a 
     by-product of its water purifying process.
       Joe fears the chemicals are damaging the spawn and fry--as 
     well as fishing. ``Every time the water treatment plant dumps 
     a big load into the river,'' Joe claims, ``the fish just stop 
     biting.''
       Joe can't imagine Washingtonians would sit still if they 
     saw twenty five trucks parked on Key Bridge dumping waste 
     into the Potomac. And twenty five trucks a day adds up to 
     over nine thousand trucks a year. ``How many times would nine 
     thousand trucks go around the Beltway?'', Joe wonders.
       A recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report on the 
     Washington Aqueduct confirms Joe's fears. Prepared by Fish 
     and Wildlife's Chesapeake Bay field office and a panel of 
     area-wide fisheries biologists, the report advocates 
     eliminating all Washington Aqueduct waste discharges into the 
     Potomac, one of fourteen American Heritage Rivers targeted 
     for ``environmental, economic, and social restoration 
     projects.''
       Surprisingly, the panel claims shortnose sturgeon have been 
     found in the lower and middle Potomac, and Aqueduct waste 
     discharge points are potential spawning habitats for 
     sturgeon. The panel's report asks the Environmental 
     Protection Agency to investigate the Aqueduct's potential 
     threat to a sturgeon comeback.
       The EPA gives the Washington Aqueduct a permit to discharge 
     its waste. Long past its expiration date, the permit has been 
     ``administratively extended.'' The EPA won't renew the permit 
     in its present form because the Army Corps of Engineers which 
     operates the Washington Aqueduct isn't doing everything it 
     can to clean up its waste.
       The Corps could truck the waste to disposal sites but a 
     citizens group that calls itself ``CRUDD'' (Committee for 
     Responsible Urban Disposal at Dalecarlia, the old name for 
     the Aqueduct) doesn't want the trucks threatening their 
     children's safety and their Palisade neighborhood's clean 
     air.
       The waste could be pumped to Washington's Blue Plains waste 
     water treatment plant through existing sewer lines, but the 
     Washington Aqueduct would have to pay for using the lines and 
     enlarging Blue Plains treatment capacity. The local 
     governments that buy clean water from the Aqueduct don't feel 
     that Washington area residents want to pay extra taxes to 
     stop the Potomac pollution.
       Those same customers want to save money by paying chicken 
     farmers and other polluters upstream to stop their discharge. 
     The EPA allows polluters to buy and sell pollution rights 
     from one another. But that kind of exchange wouldn't save the 
     fish.
       Joe Fletcher thinks that if Washingtonians knew how dirty 
     their clean drinking water makes the Potomac, they might want 
     to pay a little extra so the shad and the rockfish have a 
     chance to make a comeback. Joe even dreams about the day he 
     might see a sturgeon breaking the water close to his boat--
     but not too close!


     
                                  ____
                                       Department of the Interior,


                                     Fish and Wildlife Service

                                     Annapolis, MD, March 2, 1999.
     Re: Washington Aqueduct Report.

     Ms. Patricia Gleason,
     U.S. EPA, Region III,
     Water Protection Division,
     Philadelphia, PA.
       Ms. Gleason: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with 
     Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Interstate 
     Commission for the Potomac River Basin, District of Columbia 
     Fish and Wildlife, and National Marine Fisheries Service have 
     completed a report on the sediment discharges from the 
     Washington Aqueduct, Washington, D.C. The enclosed report 
     concludes that significant adverse impacts to anadromous fish 
     during the spawning season could occur from the sediment 
     discharges. The report entitled, ``Washington Aqueduct 
     Sediment Discharges Report of Panel Recommendations'' 
     includes recommendations to the Aqueduct Administrators on 
     how to minimize the impacts during the spawning season.
       We appreciate the opportunity to provide information 
     relevant to fish and wildlife resources. If you have any 
     questions on this report, please contact David W. Sutherland 
     at (410) 573-4535 or DavidXS[email protected].
           Sincerely,

                                         Robert J. Pennington,

                                                Acting Supervisor,
                                      Chesapeake Bay Field Office.
       Enclosure.


       
                                  ____
                Washington Aqueduct Sediment Discharges


                    Report of Panel Recommendations

         Fisheries Panel Summary of Recommendations, March 1999

       A panel of fisheries biologists from the District of 
     Columbia, State of Maryland, Interstate Commission on the 
     Potomac River Basin, National Marine Fisheries Service, and 
     U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was convened to provide 
     recommendations on minimizing impacts to migratory fish from 
     sediment discharges at the Washington Aqueduct. The fisheries 
     panel provides these recommendations to the administrators at 
     the Washington Aqueduct in an effort to advance the 
     anadromous (and resident) fish restoration efforts in the 
     Potomac River. By minimizing the adverse effects to water 
     quality from sediment discharges at the Dalecarlia and 
     Georgetown settling basins, fisheries resource managers have 
     a better chance at achieving fish and habitat restoration 
     goals for the Potomac River.
       1. The goal is to eliminate sediment discharges to the 
     Potomac River. If sediment discharges are absolutely 
     necessary, the panel recommends eliminating the flocculent/
     sediment discharges from February 15 to June 15, to avoid the 
     early and late spawning activities of migratory fish.
       2. Mix the flocculent/sediments with raw river water in the 
     settling basins to produce an effluent, that when discharged 
     to the river, reduces the adverse impacts of concentrated 
     sediments on migratory fish.
       3. Slow the rate of flocculent/sediment discharge to the 
     river to a minimum of 72 hours per basin. We recommend that 
     the ratio of discharge to river flow be less that 0.1%. This 
     will also reduce the adverse impacts to migratory fish from 
     concentrated sediments entering the river.
       4. Monitor water quality daily at the discharge sites to 
     identify a time when water quality conditions are least 
     sensitive to sediment discharges in the river. The water 
     quality monitoring parameters include: pH, temperature, 
     alkalinity, and conductivity.
       5. Remove rocks from the Dalecarlia outfall to ensure 
     controlled and measurable sediment discharge rates, and 
     establish outfall maintenance and discharge monitoring plans 
     to promote safe operation and predictable discharge rates.
       6. Create a panel of stakeholders to assist the Washington 
     Aqueduct with issues relating to the Potomac River ecosystem. 
     These entities could include citizen coalition, local, state, 
     interstate, and federal representatives.

     

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