Today we all got the choice to visit a place that interested us. One of those choices was the DC Urban Tree House and the Anacostia River.
In the middle of the city, its no surprise that there were a lot of issues that this park and river deal with.
The main problem with a solution is pollution. Walking around or taking the boat tour I saw a lot of litter. We were able to use pickers to grab the stuff on land but the water is a different matter. Trash that is washed away onto the river has an unsuspected hero – plastic bags. At grocery stores, people in DC pay a “bag tax” for every plastic bag they use. Four out of five cents per bag goes to helping the Anacostia Riverkeeper set up litter traps and preform scientific experiments to solve problems on the river. Oil spills and sewage overflows are some other things this bag tax helps the District.
Green roofs and rain gardens are also being implemented in the DC area to help solve problems of pollution runoff and overflow. Before, when it rained, all the water would run off the concrete and into the sewage drainage. Too much rain would cause that to overflow into the river. It still does this but differences are being made. With new technology and these gardens as green infrastructure, Americas capital is on the road to becoming cleaner.
Honestly I think this bag tax could be implemented in other places, and simply bringing reusable bags to stores gets people out of paying the tax and bags out of animals way. Plus, green roofs and rain gardens are beautiful things that are easy to grow in urban, suburban, and rual places.
LoveofNature 