The Nation’s River Reveals Nature’s Resilience

Diane Katz / September 13, 2010

The glum folks who insist that government control of all natural resources is necessary to save the planet, who regard nature as defenseless and doomed, ought to click here for hope. New research by the U.S. Geological Survey documents the dramatic revival of a 50-mile stretch of the Potomac River that was once considered “decimated” and “barren.” The case demonstrates once again that government is not the ultimate environmental steward and that nature is resilient enough to forgive our mistakes.

Decades of discharges from government-run wastewater treatment plants—particularly Washington, D.C.’s Blue Plains facility—loaded the Potomac with nitrogen and other nutrients that nurtured colonies of algae. In conjunction with sediment from runoff, the algae clouded the water and blocked sunlight from reaching riverbed vegetation—the source of oxygen, food, and shelter for invertebrates, fish, and waterfowl. A dark emptiness thus descended, prompting President Lyndon B. Johnson to declare the river “a national disgrace,” according to The Washington Post. (more…)