Author: John R. Wennersten

Publisher: Publishing Concepts (Baltimore, MD)

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13:

An Unspoiled Waterway teeming with fish, its shores a virtual paradise, the Anacostia River figured prominently in the original plans for the new nation's elegant, bustling capital. Instead it quickly became a poster child for America's tragically neglected and abused urban waterways. With a clear eye and sharp pen, accomplished environmental historian John R. Wennersten takes an unsparing look at the historic forces and misguided policies that all but ruined a beautiful river while imposing the burden of pollution unequally on Washington's poorer citizens. Anacostia offers a much needed corrective to the uncritical assumptions of growth for its own sake and the cost it imposes on our waters, our natural resources, and the health of our citizenry. It also demonstrates how thoughtless destruction can be stopped, and rivers restored. Book jacket.