The coal industry is having a tough week. Yesterday, the environmental and human toll of mountaintop removal coal mining was the subject of a Senate hearing. Today, the DC government announced a $2,500 fine to anyone using coal tar in pavement projects. 
Staring Jul. 1, DC will no longer issue construction permits for roadway and driveway builds involving [...]

The Potomac Conservancy is right now releasing its second annual "State of the Nation's River" report. Not that there's tons of suspense on the tenor of the nonprofit's findings:
Pollution from a hardened landscape has become the Potomac region's fastest-growing water quality problem, threatening the health of the waters from which 86 percent of the [...]

This doesn't sound good.
WASA just put out a press release about a possible rupture in a 60-inch sewer line underneath the Anacostia River. The pipe runs from the O Street pumping station on the west bank of the river (near the baseball stadium) down to the Blue Plains treatment plant in the city's southern corner.
Press [...]

Every year since 2002, the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) has posted daily water-quality notices at two locations along its namesake river from June through October. If a blue flag is flying, fecal coliform levels are below the boating standard (good); a yellow flag means levels are above the standard (potentially bad). Last year, the Bladensburg [...]