Anacostia River

Anacostia River Splash postponed due to sewer overflow

The Anacostia River Splash, the first permitted swim on the Anacostia River in over 50 years, will be postponed to September due to sewer overflow

Anacostia River
NBC Washington

The Anacostia River Splash event will be postponed due to sewer overflows caused by a storm on Thursday, said the Department of Energy & Environment.

“Recently, we have had several intense short duration rain events, which caused two small CSO (combined sewer overflow) discharges to the Anacostia River. Unfortunately, the Splash event needs to be postponed out of an abundance of caution,” said Jeff Seltzer, deputy director of DOEE’s Natural Resources Administration.

A CSO event happens when rainwaters and untreated wastewater mix directly into a body of water, according to the Environment Protection Agency. On Thursday, CSO controls were temporarily offline due to construction.

"Thursday’s rainstorm occurred while the existing combined sewer overflows (CSOs) controls were temporarily offline as D.C. Water finishes construction of the final stage of the Clean Rivers Project. As a result, an overflow event did occur Thursday," said Anacostia Riverkeeper in an official statement on its website.

Organized by the Anacostia Riverkeeper nonprofit, the event would have been the first permitted swim on the Anacostia River in over 50 years

The event will be postponed until September and will still take place in the same location, Kingman Island Dock next to the Benning Road Bridge, the nonprofit said.

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