A book is not the same as a river. Sure, The Potomac by Frederick Gutheim, an urban planner and historian, will provide a sense of history and add that depth of understanding to the river itself, but I’ve never seen the Potomac and known I was seeing the Potomac. I don’t have anything to reference from my own experience really. Only childhood memories. So a book can only do so much. I’ve read In River Time and spent a great deal of time at the James River. So any comparison I can do between these two rivers will be pretty unbalanced.
As a side note: It was a major disappointment that I had to miss the trip. Sometimes I think maybe I could’ve gone if I had just toughened up, but then I don’t think that’s true. I probably would’ve had a fever the whole time and had to leave right in the middle. But this trip is a big part of what makes Earth Lodge Earth Lodge. And I’m so jealous of all the pictures of the trip and the inside jokes I don’t understand. But alas, such is life.
From what I’ve gathered, the history of the Potomac and the James is relatively similar. It’s resources and geography were used to settled the surrounding lands, including a now major city adjacent to each respective river. The problems with pollution are also similar, even follow a similar timeline. Getting worse and worse with the development of industry, and them starting to improve in 1972 with the clean water act. Although the pollution problem in the Potomac seems to be more serious, the nitrates and phosphorous in the water in the Chesapeake posing a more serious threat to the whole ecosystem and watershed than the same in the James. Perhaps because more effort has been put into cleaning up the James? Maybe the James is more accessible, used more recreationally than the Potomac? I’m not sure, as the book really only spoke for the history, not the current problems. I only glean this much from class today.
The one experience I have with the Chesapeake that does shape some of these assertions was from when I was little. My aunt used to have a condo by the bay. We would stay there during the summer sometimes. I remember this one time, I was probably about seven, where we went and the water was this unnatural blue-green color. Like that stuff you clean bathrooms with. We weren’t allowed to swim. We went fishing during that trip. I’m not sure where we were, but we had to go home before we caught anything because my older brother spotted a dead carrion bird, which my dad said was a really bad sign, since they eat what’s already died. There were also some dead fish floating in the water by the dock we were using. So suffice it to say, we didn’t fish for long that day. We were never allowed to eat what we caught, even when we did actually catch fish and the water wasn’t green. It was more than a little frustrating to a little kid at a beach.
I think that experience really brings home the downfalls of pollution. That was in about 2002 or so, and I’ve heard the water quality has improved, but that was pretty drastically bad. It’s what makes me think that pollution is a larger problem in the Potomac and Chesapeake than here in the James. Then again, I had never been to the James until last year, so it have conceivably been just as bad. I wish I could’ve gone on the trip this weekend so I could know what exactly is being done to fix and prevent that from happening again. I think the recreational use of the James is a big part of what’s gotten it cleaned up and sustainably taken care of. I hope that the Potomac is used as recreationally, because it’s probably my favorite thing about the James.