One Step Closer to a Trash-Free Potomac

John Chesley's Fort Washington home overlooks the Potomac River. The 88-year-old has participated in the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup since it began in 1989. (By Michael Temchine For The Washington Post)

When John Chesley takes his rowboat out on the Potomac River near his Fort Washington home, he can see the Washington Monument. But he can also see a far less appealing sight: trash that has made its way down the river to the shoreline about 100 feet behind his house.

"At one time I had a washing machine that came drifting in on our shores," says Chesley, who, at 88, takes part every year in a cleanup of the Potomac watershed.

That effort happens again this weekend, when Chesley and thousands of other volunteers will fan out to more than 300 sites in Maryland, Virginia and the District as part of the 19th annual Potomac River Watershed Cleanup. The event is organized by the Alice Ferguson Foundation, a nonprofit environmental education group based in Accokeek.

"We need all of our citizens to chip in. It takes everybody and doesn't matter where you live," says Tracy Bowen, the foundation's executive director.

"Our goal is to have a trash-free Potomac by 2013," she says. "We want to be out of the trash business by then and think it's a doable goal."

The cleanup, on Saturday and Sunday from 9 to noon, has become an important project not just for homeowners along the river but for the many area residents who bike, hike and boat along the Potomac basin.

Last year, 6,543 volunteers picked up 207.7 tons of trash, including nine lawn mowers, four kitchen sinks, three toilets, a parking meter, a pay phone, a 1968 New Jersey license plate and a message in a bottle from Chambersburg, Pa.

The amount of trash is "shocking to see," Bowen says. "It makes people think twice . . . about littering."

Chesley is one of the foundation's more dedicated volunteers, having participated since the event's inception in 1989. But even before then, he was a steward of the Potomac.

In 1964, Chesley, who is retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, built his home on family-owned land about four miles south of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. A few years later, while out on his sailboat, he began noticing trash coming down the river from the District. He persuaded his civic group to help clean the neighborhood's nearly 2,000 feet of shoreline and got a dumpster from the county. Once the Ferguson Foundation began its cleanup, Chesley says, "we joined in with them the first year."

And come Saturday, he'll bring out the hot coffee and hand out gloves and trash bags to the 15 to 20 neighbors who show up to work. "There's so much trash that has to be picked up," he says. "We do our best."

POTOMAC RIVER WATERSHED CLEANUP

Saturday and Sunday 9 to noon. For a complete list of sites and contact information, visithttp://www.trashfreepotomac.org. For information, call the Alice Ferguson Foundation at 301-292-5665. Gloves and trash bags will be provided. Dress appropriately. Event is scheduled rain or shine; in the event of severe storms, cancellations will be posted on the Web site.