Donald Trump’s Washington Course Accused of polluting the Potomac

The scene of the crime....

Donald Trump is being accused of producing pollution that could contaminate the source of drinking water for the city where he so badly wants to live.

In 2009, the Trump National Golf Course 15 miles outside Washington, D.C., cut down an estimated 465 mature trees along the banks of the Potomac River, which provides drinking water to 5 million people. The head of the nonprofit Potomac Conservancy, Hedrick Belin, is now charging that the removal of trees along that 1.5-mile stretch could be worsening erosion and runoff into the river.

“It’s the single largest stretch of river upstream of D.C. without any trees on it whatsoever,” Belin told Grist, the US not for profit online magazine, which focuses on environmental issues.

“If you’re flying into the National Airport in D.C., you can see it from the air. The contrast is so stark. And those missing trees matter for water quality. Trees are nature’s Brita filter,” he says, noting that they capture pollutants before they enter waterways. “When Trump makes an egregious move like this, we’re gonna call it out.”

Tree free Trump National Washington from the air.

Ed Russo, who has overseen environmental work on Trump’s golf courses, said that some of the trees were weak and susceptible to disease. He also claimed that the trees were causing erosion, and that the grasses planted in their place are more environmentally beneficial. As The Washington Post commented in 2011, Russo’s ideas “often go against the grain of conventional scientific wisdom and soil conservation practice.”

Russo responded to Belin’s allegations with a riposte worthy of The Trump himself: “This is a spectacular environmental net gain we did,” he told the Washingtonian this week. “Nobody required Donald Trump to do it. He did it because it was the right thing to do. Everyone agrees with me except Hedrick what’s-his-name.”

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