Our letter to The Washington Post: The Potomac River deserves monumental attention
/Potomac Conservancy President speaks out against failed public investment in our nation’s river
The Potomac River flows past the national mall
Our Letter to the Editor | July 14, 2026
Published in The Washington Post
The July 11 front-page article “Trump aimed to finish these projects by July 4. Many are not done.” was illustrated by a photo of the National Mall and Reflecting Pool in the foreground, with the Potomac River beyond them.
The Trump administration has devoted extraordinary attention and $14 million to making the Reflecting Pool cleaner and more attractive. The Potomac deserves the same care and attention given to the monuments that line its banks.
Long before it was a backdrop to our monuments, the Potomac helped build a young nation. Today, the river sustains commerce, supplies drinking water to about 5 million people across the D.C. metropolitan area and shapes the capital literally and culturally.
Yet the nation’s river remains neither reliably swimmable nor fishable. The Potomac’s health was given a “B” grade for water quality last year, which was the fifth B-level mark in a row, but emerging threats led American Rivers to designate it the country’s most endangered river this spring. Polluted runoff, forest loss, climate extremes and data-center sprawl are stacking stress on the Potomac. And January’s catastrophic sewer-pipe collapse, which released more than 240 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Potomac, exposed just how vulnerable the river, and therefore D.C.’s drinking-water supply, is.
The clearest reflection of America’s values isn’t in a pool. It’s found in the health of the Potomac and the communities that depend on it. Investment in the Potomac should reflect its importance to the nation’s history, health and future.
Hedrick Belin, Silver Spring
The writer is president of Potomac Conservancy.
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