Monthly Archives: February 2024

Adventure awaits in DC

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Adventure is important. As a kid I loved reading adventure stories: Maurice Herzog, Ernest Shackleton, Will Steger, and the like. Soon, I will be tackling an adventure of epic proportions – the first kayak exploration of an un-named water body here in Washington DC, USA.

I have been visiting the mud flat immediately upstream of US 50/ New York Ave bridge to remove tires since we started paddling the Anacostia River 3.5 years ago. In 2024 I have started visiting this mudflat at high tide instead of low tide because I have better kayak access and have been finding tires on the back side of the mudflat. Of course high tide means deeper water, less visibility, and in winter, freezing as you dig tires out of the submerged mud. Late February I was out for a quick morning paddle as Kelly had to use the car for work. It was cold, the water was murky, and it was peak high tide, so I pulled up on shore to remove clothes so I could wade in and try to find tires by feel (and keep my clothes dry). However, I needed a bit of time to prepare mentally, so I took a quick stroll and found a lake!

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The lake is circled in red. Google maps image.

The lake is probably 150 meters from the Anacostia River. The terrain and vegetation are not an issue – this is a simple kayak portage! However, I needed to get the car back to Kelly and there was a tire in the murk for me to remove, which meant I did not have time for a proper lake exploration.

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Here is a view of the entire lake. Google Maps image.

So now I have something to look forward to: an exciting exploration of an unknown water body in the Nation’s capital! I love close to home adventures!!

The good old days

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Littering is something people have always done. Back when containers and tools were made from rocks, wood, animal parts, etc. and the global human population was small, litter wasn’t a big deal. As the human population grew and we started making more sophisticated and disposable items litter started becoming problematic. By the 1950’s littering had become enough of issue that awareness campaigns had started and a anti-spokesman: “the litterbug” was created.  At current population levels and with modern materials littering can be much more pernicious. The volume and permance of items tossed by modern litterers is astounding, disturbing, ubiquitous, and also toxic. Modern litter will last for many human generations. This is called progress.

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Does intent matter for plastic pollution?

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The Ocean Conservancy is a science-based conservation non-profit that started in 1972. It has had name and mission changes as it has aged, reflecting how ocean threats and understanding of these issues have changed. I have used Ocean Conservancy reports to help me understand plastic pollution and to communicate plastic issues with others. The Ocean Conservancy is an important and worthwhile conservation group.

Recently I have started finding Ocean Conservancy research plastic trash in the Anacostia River. The Ocean Conservancy is interested in how quickly trash moves through the Anacostia River system, and toward that end they are releasing plastic bottles with tracking devices into the river.

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Research trash. Anacostia River, MD. 18 February 2024.

Not that this is anything new. I have pulled plastic trash out of the Anacostia River associated with: plant restoration, mussel restoration, constructed wetlands, water quality sampling, sediment deposition sampling, etc. The same attributes that make plastic desirable for single use beverage containers make plastics desirable for research and restoration efforts.

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Research trash and kayak. Anacostia River, MD. 19 February 2024.

I am not without blame. I have used plastic bottles to make insect traps for monitoring insect populations, moving water samples around, carrying solvents, etc. I have also used nylon straps, plastic flagging tape, PVC pipes, nylon backpacks, polypropylene paper, plastic pens, etc. in my research efforts.  My kayak is plastic. I wear plastic miracle fabrics to stay warm and dry when on the water. My car has many plastic components. My phone and computer contain plastics. Plastics are an almost unavoidable aspect of modern life.

The Ocean Conservancy is concerned about the Ocean and they are curious about how rivers contribute to Ocean plastic pollution. I am concerned about the Anacostia River, so I view the Ocean Conservancy’s research as plastic pollution as well as research to understand plastic pollution. For most of the plastic I remove from the Anacostia River I assume it is in the river because folks just do not care enough to dispose of plastics properly. However, the Ocean Conservancy is deliberately placing plastic trash into the Anacostia River – an important distinction. Sure it is only a limited number of bottles, but the Anacostia River is trash impaired one plastic bottle at a time.

I wish that the Ocean Conservancy had spent a bit more time on experimental design. I wish that the Ocean Conservancy had taken the stance that they would not justify plastic pollution as ‘research’. However, I am not removing their research.

Perhaps the Ocean Conservancy’s research results will help them to take a harder stance on their own plastic pollution. The Anacostia River has been “one more plastic bottle in the river won’t hurt…” into being declared impaired by trash under the Clean Water Act. I am glad the Ocean Conservancy exists and I hope that they will continue to do their good work, but maybe with less litter.

Solving plastic pollution will require each of us to make changes.

The weirdest Anacostia River trash so far…

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It is February 2024. Kelly and I have been removing trash from the Anacostia River since August 2020. Of course we have found mysterious and crazy things in with the river trash: tents, swimming pools, sex toys, furniture, the pig mask, and 100’s of coconuts. However, I recently pulled an object that is the weirdest so far:

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Jar of nails, hot peppers, fluid, and photographs. Bladensburg Waterfront Park, MD. 19 February 2024.

When I first pulled this from the river ice, I thought somebody had pickled hot peppers (bonnets or habeneros), but then I noticed the nails in the jar – not food.  The nails were not corroded as they should have been if pickled in an acidic compound like vinegar. Maybe the fluid is an alcohol or oil, I wasn’t going to open the jar to find out. The fluid isn’t water because I removed it from river ice and the jar fluid wasn’t frozen. Then there were the photographs. I have done a fair bit of canning, but have never used photographs in any of my canning efforts.

The entire piece was well made, packed such that the contents did not slosh around and pleasingly arranged. The jar is fancy, this isn’t a reused peanut butter jar. The jar also was well sealed as the river wasn’t leaking into it. The lack of biofouling tells me this object hadn’t been in the river for long.

So what the heck is it? What is it for? Why was it in the river?

Maryland bottle bill

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Title slide from the Maryland bottle bill virtual rally. Screenshot from Zoom meeting. 8 February 2024.

 In Maryland the Maryland Beverage Container Recycling Refund and Litter Reduction Act (HB 735 and SB 642, a.k.a. the Maryland Bottle Bill) is trying to become law. The bill’s boosters point to its benefits — litter reduction; increased capture of beverage containers for recycling; high quality raw materials for use in new containers; setting the stage for reuse; and savings for restaurants, local governments, and taxpayers.

Under this bill, beverage producers (through a nonprofit Beverage Container Stewardship Organization) will foot the bill for taking back beverage containers, diverting them from the waste stream, and processing them for recycling. Taxpayers will no longer have to pay for recovery, recycling, and disposal of most beverage containers. The program is self-financing, The costs of oversight by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) is financed by producers’ registration fees. Currently 5.2 billion beverage containers are sold in Maryland every year, of which only a quarter are captured for recycling.  4 billion containers are entering the environment: as litter, in landfills, or are being incinerated. What the bill does is make the beverage producers responsible for the containers they produce.

I live in DC, but I buy groceries in MD. I will be part of this bill, but will not be able to vote for it. This seems such an obvious win: to implement a proven technology to recapture and reuse/recycle resources that are currently becoming a public burden as litter, landfill space, or incinerated toxics by holding producers accountable for their packaging choices. However, Maryland has had bottle bills introduced (and defeated) in the state legislature before – so we will see on this one.

I, for one, hope this bottle bill passes. It is sold as an answer to a litter problem, but the benefit of a high-quality used container resource which will create opportunities for economic growth. All of nature stuff and Chesapeake Bay goodness will just be icing on the cake.      

Here is a link to a Sierra Club website about the bottle bill: https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce/maryland-chapter/2015LegisFactSheets/Bottle%20Bill%20Fact%20Sheet%2010-15.pdf

Incipient Litter

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Incipient litter. Compare Foods, Colmar Manor, MD. 9 February 2024.

Recently, I popped into our local grocery store for some food. For several reasons, I have become a shopper who hits: produce, staples (rice, beans, flour, etc.), coffee, and dairy. On this day I chose to walk down the beverage aisle and all I could see was litter. I was amazed how much litter and that the litter was often inside plastic containers that will also become litter. It was terrifying and disturbing. I am certain that people must have thought I was insane, as I wandered about like I had never seen groceries before. I have often bought a product because it was less packaged, but today I wasn’t seeing products, I was seeing litter in the pre-consumer state.

According to the Sierra Club 23% of beverage containers in MD are recycled. That leaves 77% going into the environment: incerator, landfill, or litter. Last year we estimated pulling 103k single use plastic bottles from the Anacostia River alone – and you can still go out and fill a kayak with single use plastic bottles anytime you wish! Clearly the abundance of beverage containers at our local Compare Foods grocery store is way too much litter. I probably would have ended up crying if I went to a Safeway or Kroger store.

This isn’t a Kent’s brain is broken sort of post. This is a stark realization of where litter comes from. Combine that concept with a healthy dose of what too much plastic can do to river and you then have an idea of what I was facing in our modest, local grocery store.

I do not think this is hopeless. We all start our journey someplace. Perhaps together we can begin to consume our way out of this current plastic litter mess.

Another Anacostia River big tire day!

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Big tire. Anacostia River, MD. 3 February 2024.

Here is another big tire story from the Anacostia River. It is February and in this part of the world, that usually means cold. A North wind was adding some chop to the water and making it seem colder than the 6°C (~45°f) that the weather report said. With a wind out of the North, I thought I would go upstream and clean up the shopping carts we couldn’t load last week, however; recent flooding had moved all the shopping carts and I could not find any. Water is powerful and it is pretty amazing that something as unwieldy as a shopping cart can just disappear in a flood, but I have seen buildings swept away in floodwaters. I guess a flood moving a few shopping carts shouldn’t be so mind blowing – the Anacostia did go from a gage height of one foot to six feet – so there was some extra flow!

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Anacostia River flow data from https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/01649500/#parameterCode=00065&period=P7D&showMedian=false

After striking out on shopping carts, I went to check on a semi tire we noticed last weekend but we’re unable to remove because our kayaks were full of shopping carts. It was still present, in hip deep water near the shoreline. I hopped out of my kayak took off my life jacket, coat, and shirts (I hate wearing wet clothes for warmth), grabbed the shovel from the back deck of my kayak, and hopped in. It was unpleasantly cold (according to USGS monitoring water temp was about 6°C) and I wasn’t enjoying the tire removal process at all. I hopped out of the river, put my coat back on, got out of the wind, and began sun bathing to warm back up. I thought about just leaving and coming back on a nicer day, and then I thought this will only suck for a little while, so I took off my coat and hopped back in. It did suck – but I got the tire out and loaded into my kayak cockpit (semi tires are too big and heavy to safely load on the front or rear decks, so you load the tire into the cockpit and paddle from the rear deck).

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Big tire safely back at boat ramp. Bladensburg Waterfront Park, MD. 3 February 2024.

The paddle back was slow, but uneventful. When I got back to the boat ramp, I met Colin. Colin is a middle school student doing a documentary about the Anacostia River and he found the idea of removing trash by kayak pretty interesting – especially when he tried to lift the tire.

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Rolling the tire up the boat ramp. Bladensburg Waterfront Park, MD. 3 February 2024. Photo by Ben.

I am glad that our paths crossed. Perhaps I gave Colin a little more footage for his documentary and I hope his documentary helps people to understand that rivers are important. If nothing else it made me happy to see somebody else who cares. While pulling tires is uncomfortable, wet, and dirty work it happens quickly. Making a documentary is a lot of work, but it also has the potential to make a big difference. Thanks Colin.