Chesapeake Quarterly Volume 9, Number 1: Anacostia River Chronology

Anacostia River Chronology

1634	Maryland Colony founded
1742	Bladensburg chartered as a shipping port for tobacco
1800	Agriculture shifts from tobacco to grain
1850	Potomac River becomes D.C.’s principal water supply Port of Bladensburg silted in and useless
1861-1865	Civil War; epidemics of smallpox, typhoid, and malaria; government investigates sanitary sewerage
1871-1873	The Anacostia is viewed by local government as a sewage conduit
1890-1898	Col. Peter C. Haines plans to reclaim Anacostia mudflats
1902	Army Corps of Engineers dredges parts of the Anacostia
1916	Kingman Island created
1918	Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission organized to investigate typhoid epidemic and ensure pure water for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, MD
1930s	Evolution of land use in the watershed from agriculture to urbanization
1932	Bacterial contamination closes a large portion of the Anacostia
1938	Wastewater treatment plant at Blue Plains opens (find out more)
1948	Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 provides the first federal funds for state water control programs (find out more)
1965	President Lyndon B. Johnson calls the Potomac “a national disgrace”
1971	D.C. Council prohibits water contact sports in the Potomac, Rock Creek, and the Anacostia
1972	Anacostia experiences major fish kills; Federal Clean Water Act passes (find out more)
1980	50 percent of the Anacostia watershed is urbanized; population reaches 569,000
1987	98 percent of the tidal wetlands and 75 percent of the basin’s freshwater wetlands lost or destroyed by this date
1988-1995	260 spills of hazardous substances totaling nearly 60,000 gallons in the Anacostia
2003	Anacostia Watershed Initiative of 2003, federal law
2005	Trash-Free Potomac Treaty (find out more)
2008	Kingman Island opens to public (find out more)
2010	D.C. Bag Bill law goes into effect (find out more)