DC lawsuit claims US Government polluted Anacostia River for 150 years

DC sues feds over Anacostia pollution

A new lawsuit accuses the federal government of polluting the Anacostia River for over a century. FOX 5's Homa Bash breaks down the issue.

WASHINGTON - D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb has filed a lawsuit accusing the federal government of polluting the Anacostia River for more than a century.

The suit claims the government has been a major source of hazardous waste and toxic chemicals contaminating the river for 150 years.

Schwalb is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to fund cleanup efforts and address the environmental harm caused by the pollution.

"The lawsuit seeks to recover the costs associated with the cleanup effort, which will range into the tens of millions of dollars," Schwalb told FOX 5. "I suspect the overall damages in this suit will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars."

Filed under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the Superfund law, and the District’s Brownfield Revitalization Act, the lawsuit highlights extensive pollution from federal facilities and activities.

Key allegations include decades of contamination from shipbuilding and munitions manufacturing at the Washington Navy Yard, where oil, PCBs, dioxins, heavy metals, and other toxins were released into the river. The Navy’s own reports have identified the site as a continuing source of pollution via stormwater runoff.

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Other sources of contamination cited in the lawsuit include chemical waste from federal printing facilities, pollution from Fort McNair, and toxic discharges from the Capitol Power Plant.

The lawsuit emphasizes that many of the pollutants found in the Anacostia do not break down and can cause long-lasting harm to the environment and our health, including risks like cancers, birth defects, developmental disorders, and more.

The attorney general says cleanup efforts are constantly underway, with the next phase beginning this year.

While Schwalb’s office recently secured a $57 million settlement from Pepco to support river cleanup, the attorney general emphasized that federal accountability is essential.

Read the full lawsuit below:

Washington, D.C.