The Anacostia Riverwalk Trail Kenilworth Park South Section

Last week I had some photos of the center part of the under-construction Kenilworth section of the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail (from Foote Street to Nash Run). After getting requests for more, I can now present these photos of the southern section from Ethel Kennedy Bridge to Foote Street. I also have photos of old Deane Avenue from where the trail meets it to where it's closed just past Watts Branch. This won't be part of the trail, but it probably should be.  

First, here's what's left of the old Benning Road PEPCO plant (and here in all its past glory).

 

Just north of the Kennedy Bridge, a small bridge will need to be built over the outflow stream from the power plant Piney Run*. Nearby, kayakers enjoy the Anacostia.

 

The bridge over the outflow stream Piney Run will be built just past this point. The Metro bridge can be seen in the background.

 

North of the outflow Piney Run, the trail is not paved yet, but one can get an idea of how wide it will be.

 

 

One trail neighbor is the NPS' Kenilworth Maintenance Yard.

 

And another is DC's Solid Waste Transfer Center which can be seen sticking up above the treeline with the NPS's Kenilworth Maintenance Yard's fence on the right:

 

 

And a better view of the building later

 

 

 

There's a small, unnamed stream that goes around the trash transfer center, and it passes under the trail through a culvert just past this retaining wall/bridge:

 

 

They haven't graded and gravelled the whole thing yet, namely where it goes up this steep but small hill

 

 

After going up and down the hill past the trash transfer building, it connects to old Deane Avenue.

 

Looking back at the new section of trail whre it connects to old Deane Avenue. There's this large mound of dirt, but I assume it's temporary.

 

The trail will then head east on old Deane Avenue towards Foote Street. Hopefully this part will be repaved.

 

Coming off of Foote Street head south, this is the old entrance to the Park and the future trail.

If instead of heading east on old Deane Avenue, one goes west and then north through the Kenilworth Park Landfill South section, one can see some signs of when the road was open. I'm not sure when that was, but I think it was from 1980 to 1997 maybe?

All of Kenilworth Park was created in the 1930s and 1940's by the Army Corps of Engineers by filling in wetlands with dirt dredged from the Anacostia. Then the area south and north of Watts Branch became a landfill

The District used the land for disposal and burning of municipal waste. The landfill extended directly into the river without any barrier, and landfill wastes mixed with soil entered the water. By the time the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) became law the District Landfill was closed, so the landfill never had a permit.

From 1968-1970 

Sanitary landfill operations were used at Kenilworth to dispose of the District’s waste. When the filling was almost complete, the landfill was closed and largely capped (no impermeable cap was used; it is believed that sediment was dredged from the Anacostia River). At completion, the Kenilworth landfill contained around 4 million tons of raw refuse, incinerator ash, and other burned residue

At which point NPS began to turn it into a park. By 1980 the park opened with a grassy area served by a road, with public toilets (see below), a parking lot, and a set of exercise stations around the periphery. Then in 1997-1998

New fill was deposited to cover part of the old landfill south of Watts Branch, raising the park surface by as much as 27 feet. The fill was mostly excavation materials and construction debris.

Nice job NPS. In 1998, DC Department of Health issued a Notice of Violation to NPS regarding the placement of fill with objectionable materials (construction debris) on the site without a permit. And some cleanup has been carried out since. 

Some remnants of the park that you can see are the old road (and parking lot?)...

 

 

this old fire hydrant...

 

This old water fountain...

 

And the old, now colorfully decorated, abandoned park bathroom:

 

Just north of Watts Branch this jersey wall across Deane Avenue marks the closed section of the road [the far part is what is open].

 

Deane Avenue goes over Watts Branch, but if you aren't paying attention you'll miss it. A small walk from the closed side and one can see this trash trap in Watts Branch where it joins the Anacostia.

 

From the EA it does not appear that he trail will use Deane Avenue, but will instead use a new path built closer to the river. Deane could be used as an interim path though, and maybe in the future could be an additional route through what I hope will be a reopened park (assuming all the toxic waste can be cleaned up and the site made safe).

I've always thought that what DC needs is a place where one can legally go camping - a state park if you will. And maybe someday NPS can make the Kenilworth Park Landfill South into that place. Toxic waste and possibly sketchy neighborhood aside, it would be a wonderful location.

There are a few places where trail users will get great views of the river.

 

 

And heron (I assure you, there are two in this photo)..

And flowers...

Despite the illegally dumped construction debris, trash transfer and hazardous waste neighbors and the less than ideal neighborhood, this trail has the potential to be DC's nicest (OK 2nd, it's hard to beat the CCT). It will run mostly through park land, along a river with amazing views and wildlife (I also saw a beaver or something like it on the ride) and without a parallel road like in Rock Creek. If you were someone who valued living next to a trail with a park-like feel, this might be some place to look into moving next to. 

 * I thought Piney Run reached the Anacostia at the inlet near DPW's Trash Transfer Station, but I learned I was wrong. Not sure what that culvert is.

Comments

[Purple Eagle]

I suspect that people with sturdy enough tires will find it convenient to use old Deane Ave as a bypass for the convoluted trail route through the neighborhood. One could use the service road that connects Deane to the trail and rejoin the official trail just before it goes into the woods and heads downhill toward the river.

If the animal you saw had a large flat tail, it's a beaver. If not, it's probably a muskrat. Some people say there are nutria around, but if so it would be quite larger, bigger than a beaver.

I know NPS plans to rehabilitate the landfill before building the permanent trail. Are there are published/formal plans about how and when they will do this? Currently there are recreational activities that use the landfill portion of the park. There are football goal posts in a couple of spots, used just for practices I assume. Last year Pacers running store started hosting cross country (running) races there too. There will be a large high school invitational with thousands of runners on Sept 26.

[DE]

I really enjoyed this, thanks. Fascinating mix of the post-industrial and reclaimed nature. I wonder how much from the landfill leaches out into the Anacostia. I'm sure it's been measured by someone and will look for it.

The flower appears to be a hibiscus, probably Hibiscus siriacus, sometimes called Rose of Sharon.

I tried to play find the second heron, but failed.

Anyway, I wouldn't camp there, but look forward to riding around.

[Smedley Burkhart]

Thanks for the lovely photo essay. We give a fair amount of money to the Anacostia Watershed Society and it's gratifying to see this kind of thing happening on shore along this beautiful and suffering river. I must get down there for a ride some time, but camping would give me the serious creeps. Pretty X-C course, but doesn't look hilly enough to me.

[Dan]

Based on Wash Cycle’s previous article about the ART (7/28/15), I rode along some of the new trail last weekend and was very pleasantly surprised to see how much work has been done over the past year. I don’t have a problem with the Phase 1 trail using the Mayfair neighborhood streets just as long as there is a continuous bikable connection from Benning Road to Bladensburg that connects the southern and northern halves of the trails together. As it is now, the only way I can get from one half to the other is to put the bike on my car and drive to either location (unless you want to play with fire and attempt to ride along Kenilworth Ave). The only down side to all this is that it appears no one is working on the trail at the moment. The ART website says the trail will be completed by “mid 2016”. Let’s hope the workers return and no Ospreys build any nests along the trail.

[JGM]

Are you sure about the bridge connection to the Arboretum in phase 1? My understanding is that nothing has been approved.

[washcycle]

That's what the 2011 EA says. But I'm not sure that Phase 1 will be completed as part of the work ongoing now. So there might be two parts to Phase 1.

[DE]

According to a 2012 NPS report, they don't feel that the old landfill has an impact on adjacent surface waters. It does leach into some shallow groundwater such that it exceeds drinking water standards, but this water isn't directly used as drinking water and doesn't present a good pathway to surface waters.

"The data do not indicate an overall impact from the Site on surface water or sediment in the
adjacent surface water bodies (Anacostia River, Watts Branch, and Kenilworth Marsh).
Groundwater transport is the only potential pathway for Site contaminants to migrate to adjacent
water bodies and groundwater data collected during the RI do not indicate a significant
groundwater transport pathway."

http://www.nps.gov/nace/learn/management/upload/Feasibility-Report.pdf

In 1999, the EPA did not find evidence of suspected PCBs in soil samples, so there is that. They also suspected asbestos had been dumped there, but I don't see that they tested for it.

[DE]

...however, the NPS report does find exposure pathways for PCBs etc. from surface soils. They don't feel they're an "unacceptable" risk.

[Purple Eagle]

@Smedley, yeah, it's a pretty flat course. Made for some fast times in the inaugural race last fall.

@Dan - they might still be working on the northern segment even if you did not seen anybody in the area covered by these photos. When I crossed the river on NY Ave this week I could still see the cranes and other equipment in the river. The update on the official trail page (from July 13) says they are working on pile driving for the boardwalk section.

As of last fall, one could inspect construction progress by taking the river trail within Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. A portion of that trail was closed for construction because it will be part of the new paved trail, but the portion closer to the visitor center and parking in the aquatic gardens was open - as far as the river. From there you could see some of the work being done on the boardwalk segment. A bridge is needed over Lower Beaverdam Creek as well. They had not started on it yet as of last Nov.