EPA has reissued the operating permit for the world's largest sewage treatment plant -- Blue Plains, which handles sewage from most of the DC metro area. Despite huge improvements in the Potomac River since the 1960s, Blue Plains needs to reduce its nitrogen discharge another 45 percent to protect the Chesapeake Bay.

Environment News Service had the permit story September 10, 2010. [2]

It followed David A. Fahrenthold's sweeping September 7, 2010, story in the Washington Post [3] about the overall health of the Potomac.