Statement from Hedrick Belin, Potomac Conservancy President

MONDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2019 

STATEMENT FROM HEDRICK BELIN, POTOMAC CONSERVANCY PRESIDENT 

There’s a time to speak truth against ignorance and to stand up for our values – and that time is now.  

In a widely-shared interview with The Atlantic yesterday, Tucker Carlson abhorrently blamed immigrant communities for making the Potomac River “dirtier.”   

We at Potomac Conservancy, a nonprofit land trust and leading clean water advocate in the region, feel compelled to respond to this groundless accusation not just because it’s factually incorrect, but because it’s racist plain and simple.  

Worse still, we’re seeing similarly degrading sentiments echoed on social media. These thinly veiled racist beliefs have no place in any serious public discourse. 

We denounce Carlson’s claim that immigrants are making the Potomac River “dirtier” and hope to dispel his false and bigoted statements with these truths:  

#1 The diverse communities that use the Potomac make our hometown river a beloved waterway.   

The Potomac is an invaluable resource to a wonderfully diverse community of river users. It’s a playground for nature lovers and anglers. It’s a life source to upstream and tidal farmers who depend on its waters for their crops and livestock. It’s the source of tap water for five million residents in the greater Washington, DC metro area.  

The rich cultural and geographic diversity of river users strengthens our growing clean water movement and adds to every aspect of our local initiatives – from land protection to advocacy to river cleanups.  

The Potomac is loved, used – and yes, abused – by each community it flows through. To make the egregious assertion that one group over another is at sole fault for the river’s woes is wildly inappropriate and doesn’t reflect the true nature of local pollution sources. We all have a shared responsibility in the pollution flowing into our creeks and streams and in cleaning it up – from farmers to city dwellers to developers to suburban homeowners to anglers to boat owners and beyond.  

#2 The Potomac River has become cleaner over the last several decades, not dirtier.  

In our latest Potomac River Report Card, the river’s health improved from an abysmal D to a B in just ten years. The report, which looks at over twenty river health indicators, confirms that, for the first time in generations, we are within reach of fully enjoying a healthy, thriving Potomac River.   

The river’s comeback is even more dramatic when you consider that President Lyndon Johnson declared the Potomac a national disgrace fifty years ago.  Back then, parents told children not to touch the toxic, tainted river. Algae blooms created expansive dead zones. Native fish populations had dropped precipitously. The dire state of the river was caused by irresponsible clearcutting, agricultural practices, industrial pollution, and other harmful practices from the late 19th and 20th centuries.  

Today, top river pollutants – nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment – are on the decline, shad and other native wildlife are returning to local waters, and progress has been made to protect our region’s riverside forests and farmlands.  

It's taken decades of hard work to strengthen water protections and undo the damage wrought by reckless polluters.   

#3 Litter is an issue, but it’s not the most troubling source of water pollution.   

Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and sediment flowing off our lands contribute the most pollution to the Potomac River. These top pollutants harm aquatic life, degrade habitat, and make local waterways unsafe.  

Agricultural runoff is the number one contributor of excess nutrients and sediment found in our waterways, but urban polluted runoff may soon replace it as the top contributor. Increasing stormwater runoff, sewage overflows, rapid deforestation, more extreme weather due to the climate crisis, and new attacks on federal water protections threaten to return dangerous pollution to local waters.  

Litter, while not a top source of pollution, is a serious issue and is being tracked closely by our partners at The Alice Ferguson Foundation and Trash Free Maryland. The Conservancy’s volunteers collect more than 20,000 pounds of litter annually from local shorelines, removing beverage bottles, straws, Styrofoam, fishing line, plastic bags, and other nuisance trash from the Potomac. In the last fifteen years of hosting shoreline cleanups, we can say with confidence: Litter comes in all forms from all communities and neighborhoods in our region.  

With the help of our growing local movement, we’ll continue the progress that’s been made to restore the Potomac River to full health.  

To learn how you can take action in the fight for clean water visit potomac.org/take-action. Together, we’ll achieve our goal of a swimmable and fishable Potomac River. 

Clean Water Partners in Support of Our Statement

Potomac Conservancy is grateful to be a part of a coalition of organizations working together
to restore clean streams, protect healthy lands, and connect communities in the Chesapeake Bay region.

Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay

Anacostia Watershed Society

Anacostia Riverkeeper

Audubon Naturalist Society

Audubon Society of Northern Virginia

Blue Heron Environmental Network Inc.

Blue Ridge Watershed Coalition

Cacapon Institute

Canaan Valley Institute

Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Chesapeake Commons

Chesapeake Legal Alliance

Clean Fairfax

Clean Water Action

Delaware Nature Society

EcoLatinos

Elks Run Watershed Group

Friends of Accotink Creek

Friends of Lower Beaverdam Creek

Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake

Lackawanna River Conservation Association

Maryland League of Conservation Voters

National Wildlife Federation

Piedmont Environmental Council

Prince William Conservation Alliance

Rock Creek Conservancy

SouthWings

St. Mary’s River Watershed Association

Virginia League of Conservation Voters

Waterkeepers Chesapeake

West Virginia Interfaith Power & Light

West Virginia Rivers Coalition

West Virginia Wilderness Coalition

About Potomac Conservancy 

Founded in 1993, Potomac Conservancy is the region’s leading clean water advocate, fighting to ensure the Potomac River boasts clean water, healthy lands, and vibrant communities. The Conservancy improves local water quality through conservation and advocacy, and empowers a local clean water movement of 31,000 supporters. Together, we advocate for fewer chemicals in our drinking water, safe and pollution-free streams, protected forests and accessible parks, and healthy and thriving wildlife habitat. To learn more, visit www.potomac.org.  

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit potomac.org or contact Melissa Diemand at diemand@potomac.org or 301-608-1188 x214. 

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