The Daily Feed, We Green DC

Shop for Food, Save Our River

Photo courtesy of
‘Great Falls in Flood- March 17 2010’
courtesy of ‘Roger Photos’

Hold on to your grocery list! Just in time for Earth Day, next Wednesday you can shop for groceries and restore our water, all at once!

Shop at any of the three DC Whole Foods locations — P Street, Georgetown, and Tenleytown — from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on April 21st, and 5% of the day’s profits will go to Potomac Riverkeeper.

Potomac Riverkeeper staff will be handing out hats, bumper stickers, and brochures to shoppers as well, so you can learn more about this great organization and how it keeps our river (and our drinking water) healthy and clean.

The Daily Feed, We Green DC

We Love the River!

Rope Swing Over River

Summer Swing

If you love DC, this weekend join us in giving some love to the river!

Saturday marks the 22nd Annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup, which brings together people from all over the community. Last year, cleanups took place at approximately 500 sites–and hauled out more than 290 tons of trash!

We Love DC, Trail Voice, Friends of Rock Creek’s Environment, the DC Trash Runners and more are partnering to clean up Rock Creek Park.

To sweeten the pot, we’ve teamed with local vendors to offer things like a morning yoga stretch and fresh baked goods, plus an option to clean up while taking a morning run.

Meet us at 9 a.m. at the P Street bridge over Rock Creek Park, about 4 blocks west of Dupont Circle. Sign up on the Trail Voice site! Can’t make ours? Join another of the hundreds of sites closer to your home.

Clean-up site is just west of Dupont Circle in Rock Creek Park from 9:00 a.m. – 12 noon on Saturday, April 10. There is no cost for you to participate. It is recommended that you bring your own work gloves, although some will be available on-site.

The Daily Feed

Area Parks Are All Wet

Photo courtesy of
‘Waters rise around Roosevelt Island’
courtesy of ‘snapzdc’

As the flood flows on, more pictures flood in — this time, with news of the parks.

Great Falls and its ever-popular Billy Goat Trail have been closed since Friday. Earlier today, a park official told me the towpath was accessible for a short distance around Old Angler’s Inn, but underwater above and below that point.

In addition to inundating Washington Harbour and the Mt. Vernon Trail, the Potomac has spilled into now-closed Theodore Roosevelt Island and covered parts of the Potomac Heritage Trail as it heads north from the island’s parking lot.

And while there’s the broken lock at the C&O Canal, at mid-afternoon there was just quick-flowing muddy water — and fortunately no houses or pianos or cows floating through. More pics after the break. Continue reading

The Daily Feed

Washington Harbour Boardwalk Flooded

Potomac River Floods Washington Harbour

We’ve got a major Coastal Flood Warning today, with the tidal Potomac swelling to 3-4 ft above flood level, and 5-10 ft around Georgetown. Be safe and cautious if you live or work near the Potomac River or the C&O Canal, and don’t try to drive through flood water. The National Harbour boardwalk and parts of the driveway to K Street are inundated, and as has already been mentioned, a broken C&O Canal lock may cause additional flooding in Lower Georgetown. Parts of the The Mount Vernon Bike Trail are underwater, and of course Old Town Alexandria is getting swamped as well.

After the jump, a hydrograph and some bigger photos. Continue reading

The Daily Feed, We Green DC

Bag It

Photo courtesy of
‘String grocery bag’
courtesy of ‘bradipo’

Starting Jan. 1, if you want to tote your vittles or booze home from the store in a disposable bag, it’ll cost you 5 cents. All monies collected will go to the Anacostia River Cleanup and Protection Fund to clean up the river.

Yesterday, DC announced the Skip the Bag, Save the River education campaign and, in a sign that someone’s thinking, that it would give free reusable bags to 122,000 low-income residents and senior citizens.

I am all for this. In addition to keeping the river clean, it could save DC residents money. Money spent on trash removal now is passed along in water bills and taken away from programs that help people. And it will lower the environmental costs of producing one-use bags from oil or trees, transporting them, and disposing of them.

One tip: Come Jan. 1, keep your empty bags by your door or in your car where they’re easy to see and grab.

The Daily Feed, We Green DC

Something’s Fishy

Photo courtesy of
‘A River Runs Through It’
courtesy of ‘Brian Knight Photography’

Here’s another good reason to use all-natural lotions and potions — they can help you stay a manly man or a girly girl. How’s that?

Well, earlier this week, a new report said that now 80 percent of the male fish swimming in the Potomac River have developed eggs. Since the river provides 90 percent of DC’s drinking water, this is reason to sit up and take notice.

What’s going on? Experts aren’t entirely sure, but they’re pointing an accusing finger at endocrine disruptors in the water. The good news — you can help! Put unused medicines in the trash (not down the drain), and choose personal care products without chemicals.

And guys, remember. If you get pregnant…there is something in the water.

The Daily Feed, We Green DC

River Art: Water, Wings and Wildflowers

Courtesy of Washington Printmakers Gallery

Courtesy of Washington Printmakers Gallery

River lovers, here’s some art you might like — soft, colorful images of the Potomac River, C & O Canal, and other local spots by Yolanda Frederikse. They say her secret is painting in plein air, sitting quietly and looking closely, to capture the delicacy of wildflowers or to spot birds and other wildlife along winding waterside footpaths.

Her monotypes — watercolor painted on lithographic plates on site, then printed through an etching press in her studio — plus screen prints and watercolors are now on display at the Washington Printmakers Gallery near Dupont Circle.

Tomorrow at 1 p.m., just in time for lunch, this DC artist will give a talk on her work. You can catch Water, Wings and Wildflowers until Oct. 25.

Crime & Punishment, Foggy Bottom, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors, WTF?!

MPD Divers in the Potomac

Police Divers in the Potomac

What was up with those MPD scuba divers in the Potomac just off Washington Harbour this morning? Did someone throw evidence into the river? Or was someone sent to sleep with the snakeheads in cement shoes? In any case, thanks to the officers for letting me go pseudo-paparazzi on the diving action this morning and indulging me in a bit of scuba talk. No way I’d dive in the cold, muddy Potomac River right by a sewer outlet in December — unless the city was paying me for it.