“PEPCO contractors responsible for cleaning up the mineral oil spill in Rock Creek appear to have left significant trash”

A reader passes on a letter sent to a couple of DC government agencies:

“The PEPCO contractors responsible for cleaning up the mineral oil spill in Rock Creek appear to have left significant trash on both the north and south sides of Klingle Road between Beach Drive and Adams Mill Road.

I run every weekend down the south side of Klingle Road to enjoy Rock Creek, and since the contractors showed up I have noticed an increase in fresh plastic wrappers and plastic and aluminum beverage containers (water bottles, soda bottles, Red Bull cans, etc). I have tried to pick up some of the trash on my way home, but the trash is extensive.

Will the PEPCO contractors clean up after themselves before wrapping up their oil spill operations?

I picked up what I could fit in the bag I brought. The poorer quality photos are of some of the beverage bottles along the median or by the mural on the north side of Klingle, (across the active traffic lanes, so I didn’t go all the way across). The westbound portion of Klingle is where the Pepco contractors currently operate from, but during the first couple of days after the spill they had one lane on each side of Klingle, with at least a dozen contractors hanging out along the sidewalk.

This area definitely had a litter problem before the Pepco contractors showed up, and is overdue for a community clean-up. Not all of the trash along Klingle is from Pepco. But I strongly suspect that the workers are better at removing the mineral oil than their own trash, adding to the litter issue along this stretch of Rock Creek.”