ON THE ANACOSTIA RIVER – Nothing like rubbing salt in a festering wound.

If the Anacostia River were a patient, it would be on life support. As if absorbing 20,000 tons of trash and 2 billion gallons of sewage each year isn’t enough, now the bombarded waterway is contending with yet another threat.

More than 600 tons of pulverized, low-sulfur coal were submerged in the river Nov. 9 when an 89-car CSX Transportation freight train jumped the tracks on the north side of a less-than-stable, two-track bridge between Anacostia Park and Kingman Island. Of the 10 derailed cars, six filled to capacity with coal fell completely into the river, and two spilled partial loads.

The coal causes environmental worries enough. What troubles conservationists even more is what eventually will unfold up the food chain – from fish to bug to bald eagle and osprey – if the accident and salvage operation stir up poisons buried in 6 feet of underwater, organic muck.

“We have legacy pollutants down there,” said Masaya Maeda, a water quality specialist with the Anacostia Watershed Society.

He’s referring to the toxic alphabet stew of pesticides, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and heavy metals, such as cadmium, lead and mercury, languishing below about 10 feet of water, testimonials to an industrial history and outdated sewer systems. Simply put, if they’re disturbed, they do more damage.

The Anacostia, a tidal river, is molasses-like in speed where the train derailed because between there and the Bladensburg Port it’s more like a lake than a river. It takes more than 40 days for one drop of water to travel from this freshwater estuary to the Potomac River, just two miles away.

A retaining wall hems in much of the river, severing the restricted main body from miles of impurity-cleansing wetlands that were once abundant. Since the mid-1990s, DC has restored 40-plus acres of these natural filters that were filled in to create buildable property.

While CSXT cleanup crews tried to minimize the impact of sediment upheaval by surrounding the salvage site with surface-to-river-bottom impermeable curtains around the salvage site five days after the accident, environmentalists wanted to know why that wasn’t done immediately.

Early tests by the watershed nonprofit showed the chemical balance (acid-alkaline) of the coal-soaked water matched water samples taken before the derailment. But the longer the coal sits in the water, the higher the risk that PAHs, or perhaps other pollutants, will leach into the water.

Back in 2004, scientists discovered that two-thirds of the Anacostia’s brown bullhead catfish had cancerous tumors caused by PAHs. Of the 42 species in the river, that catfish is the most sought after by the subsistence fishermen who usually eat what they catch.

CSXT’s goal was to extract the wreckage by the end of Thanksgiving week, said spokesman Bob Sullivan. Divers would be marking the coal so it could be removed as gently and completely as possible.

At the behest of the DC Department of Environment, CSXT is measuring the water’s acidity, turbidity and levels of dissolved oxygen. It’s also testing water and sediments regularly for chemical hazards.

“We want to minimize disturbance to the river bottom,” Sullivan said. “We’re as interested in doing the right thing as the Department of Environment is. We want to do this safely.”

The train evidently rolled onto the closed northern span from the Benning Road rail yard after an employee failed to secure the brakes, Sullivan said. CSXT had halted train traffic on both bridge spans a year ago when an inspection revealed structural problems. The south span was repaired and reopened in early 2007.

Tracks out of that rail yard, Sullivan said, usually carry train cars full of orange juice and other low-risk freight – not chlorine, ammonia or other ultra-hazardous materials. That is a relief to water-keepers such as Jim Connelly, AWS executive director, and Jim Dougherty, an activist with the Sierra Club’s DC chapter.

The DC Council banned so-called “toxic trains” within 2.2 miles of the US Capitol in 2005. But it is yet to be enforced because of a CSXT lawsuit claiming such regulations conflict with federal rules.

In the meantime, a new federal law was patterned after DC’s provision recently. It requires the Department of Transportation to issue regulations requiring railroads to consider security issues in DC and 45 other major cities when routing hazardous materials. This directive is a victory for DC residents, Dougherty said, because it essentially mimics the local ban.

Post coal-cleanup, Connelly and his cohorts will continue to bird-dog officials from CSXT and the DOE until they’re assured the watershed isn’t being short-changed. They’re aware the full impact of the derailment and recovery mission on the river and its surrounding wildlife won’t be known for months – or perhaps years.

“This is just one more concern, one more insult to this river,” Connelly said. “It’s already at capacity with pollutants. The more we add, the greater the delay is in cleaning up the entire river.”

For the latest updates on the local response to the coal spill, visit the DC government’s website at ddoe.dc.gov or Anacostia Watershed Society’s website at www.anacostiaws.org.