WASHINGTON — A special one-day permit was issued Friday to allow 200 people to stage the first ever “Splash” event in the Anacostia River to celebrate environmental progress.
The Saturday event at the Kingman Island boat dock near Benning Road is being hosted by the Anacostia Riverkeeper after bacteria and turbidity lab tests confirmed the water is acceptable for human contact during the event. Less than 100 colonies of E. Coli bacteria were detected, according to the laboratory results, from water samples taken Wednesday by Anacostia Riverkeeper Trey Sherard. Levels below 400 are safe, Sherard said.
The Splash event is scheduled between 12:30 pm and 5 p.m. Saturday. Only pre-registered participants will be allowed in the water. Swimming in D.C. waters is illegal with exceptions for permitted special events such as the Anacostia Splash and The Nation’s Triathlon, which occurs in the Potomac River.
Sherard said the inaugural Anacostia “Splash” event is a celebration of remarkable environmental progress in cleaning up one of the region’s most polluted waterways.
The $500 million Anacostia River Tunnel project, completed in 2023, is credited with reducing spills of sewage and contaminated stormwater by 98%.
“We want to celebrate the fact that this is now possible, on certain days at certain times at certain places,” Sherard said. “Everybody's like, what are you talking about? We're going swimming and we're saying there's a generation of work that has all come to fruition just at the end of 2023. And now's the time to start looking at this.”
Floating items such as plastic bags, bottles and a toothbrush could be seen at the site Friday. Sherard called the trash “ugly” but not a health threat, according to the lab tests.
The Riverkeeper is calling on D.C. leaders to pass a return deposit measure for plastic bottles to reduce trash in the river. His goals for the Anacostia is water consistently healthy enough for the eventual abolition of D.C.’s swimming ban.