Potomac Conservancy Announces Fundraising Push to Restore Potomac River

Alexandria, VA – “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Well, there is a drop to drink. Over five million people get their drinking water from the Potomac River. Yet the river remains unsafe for swimming and fishing despite recent improvements. One regional organization is determined to turn that around. Before the point of no return.

On October 10, Potomac Conservancy held Making a Splash, a major fundraising push at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Washington, DC.

“We’ve clearly seen a lot of progress in terms of the overall health of the river over the last several decades,” said Hedrick Belin. He is president of Potomac Conservancy, a local clean water nonprofit. “But those successes are threatened by the dual challenge of climate change and rapid deforestation. So the progress that we’ve seen is stalling out.”

Belin sat down with Zebra before the reception on a sublime evening by the Potomac River outside the Kennedy Center’s REACH River Pavilion.

As the sun descended, it cast a dazzling ribbon of blazing light on the water’s surface from Virginia to DC. As the river, a piercing cobalt blue, shimmered and glinted in the setting sun, it was hard to imagine that this mighty body of water could reach the point of no return unless immediate action began to reverse the damage.

To that end, The Potomac Conservancy was about to make a significant announcement inside. It aims to raise $8 million in a public fundraising campaign.

“We have a decade in which to drive these positive changes forward before it becomes too late to achieve a healthy, sustainable river,” Belin warned.

Belin pinpointed his organization’s goals. “There are some real opportunities to truly achieve a healthy, vibrant Potomac River where people can splash around in it every day of the year without fear of getting sick and that the fish are healthy and can be eaten.”

Zebra asked Belin what the most pressing issue right now concerning the health of the Potomac River is. “Pollution that flows across the land every time it rains, whether coming off a street in Washington, DC or a farm in the Shenandoah Valley. We need to use nature-based solutions to capture the rainwater where it falls and ensure that the pollution is not reaching our streams.”

In addition to supplying drinking water to the region, “the Potomac River also drives our region’s economy and connects us to nearby nature. It’s an essential community resource,” Belin pointed out.

Deborah Rutter, Kennedy Center president, welcomed the crowd. Afterward, she told Zebra that it was no accident that the performing arts center had been built right on the shores of the Potomac.

“Despite some debate about where the Kennedy Center should be built, we’re in the perfect place in how it connects to the river and what that meant for John F. Kennedy himself. If you study him at all, you learn that the water was very important to him.”

Imagine yourself in this cultural mecca. After a dark theater or concert hall, you wander onto the terrace overlooking the river. “When you come back out, you want space to reflect on what you’ve just experienced,” Rutter noted. “People come out of the Kennedy Center and stand along the terrace, and they love being along the river. For us to be on the Potomac in a beautiful setting is magnificent. It was integral to the design.”

Belin has worked with Alexandria City officials and Alx Dog Walk. He knows that Alexandrians are passionate about their Old Town waterfront.

“I suspect that’s why a lot of them live there. The redevelopment, you’ve got the Torpedo Factory that’s been there for decades, the Cherry Blossom boat, the water taxis we just saw on the Potomac. People are there because of that resource.”

ICYMI: Would you like to win a beautification award next year?