Washington, D.C.'s riverfront is set to undergo rejuvenation spurred by construction of a brand new baseball stadium for the Nationals. City officials are banking on the Anacostia River to serve as the scenic centerpiece of massive redevelopment. Ringed by a necklace of new stadiums, office buildings, condominiums and parks, this crown jewel is expected to shine as a new hub of urban life.

But as an excellent story in the Washington Post points out, "that bright vision is hard to square with the Anacostia of the present." The Anacostia of today is a "wrecked river" -choked with sediment, trash, toxic pollution, and human waste dumped out by the District's sewer system. Thomas Arrasmith, head of the Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee, said it best: "You cannot have a world-class city with a sewer running through it."

Like many big cities, the District's antiquated sewer system was designed more than a century ago to dump out raw sewage during moderate rainstorms. That still happens - more than 2 billion gallons of untreated sewage flows directly into the Anacostia every year. Partly as a result, the river has 21 times the EPA-recommended level of fecal coliform bacteria.

The WashPost story quotes James Connolly, executive director of the Anacostia Watershed Society, calling the river a toilet. "It's going to be stinky, especially after a rain," he warns Nats fans who will be catching games at the soon-to-be-built waterfront ballpark. "You'll stand up in the seventh-inning stretch and get a big whiff of sewage."

The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority says it's working to minimize this problem with a plan to dig big tunnels under the city where water can be stored during a rainstorm, then treated to remove sewage. But completely fixing the problem will take close to 20 years and $2 billion. Other solutions like green infrastructure (e.g. green roofs, rain gardens) should also be used more aggressively to reduce sewer overflows.  A model by Casey Trees showed that a significant increase in green roofs in the District would reduce the number of sewage overflows to Rock Creek by 40%.

More money is certainly needed, along with aggressive action to address the myriad pollution problems plaguing the Anacostia River. Meantime, D.C. residents (and visitors alike) at least ought to be made aware that when it rains, sewage pours into the river - putting public health at risk.

Otherwise, the Anacostia will continue to be the jewel of denial.