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       For the first time in more than 50 years, the Anacostia River was supposed to be open Saturday for swimming, just for the day, to demonstrate a quarter-century of progress to clean it up.

       But now for the second time this year, the organizers of the swimming event have had to cancel it. A powerful storm system brewing in the Atlantic is expected to bring wind-swept rain to D.C. this weekend, making the plunge unsafe.

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       The “Splash” event, hosted by the Anacostia Riverkeeper, would have allowed people to sign up for 20-minute swims from the Kingman Island dock all afternoon.

       Trey Sherard, the Anacostia riverkeeper, said the cancellation was disappointing considering the bacteria levels in the Anacostia were four times lower than the level at which water is considered unsafe to swim.

       “As it happens, water quality was outstanding. It was all set to be a really, really perfect condition, safety-wise, for the event,” Sherard said Friday, “and it was only the high wind and everything else with the tropical storm that we are canceling.”

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       The Anacostia has been closed to swimmers since 1971 and for decades was seen as a polluted, bacteria-plagued waterway full of sewage overflow. But after litigation under the Clean Water Act resulted in a 2005 consent decree to improve conditions, a number of engineering projects such as the Anacostia River tunnel allowed for tremendous progress in restoring the river, Sherard said.

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       “Right now we are looking at the fruit of a quarter-century of work across the entire watershed,” Sherard said. “So when people have concerns about, ‘Isn’t it dangerous?,’ a lot of people don’t realize there’s been so much work getting us to where we are now.”

       The first Splash event was scheduled for July, and while bacteria levels were also looking good at that time, a smattering of rainstorms led to sewage overflow that caused the organizers to postpone the swim event.

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       Nonetheless, Sherard said swimming safety is trending in the right direction: The last phase of the Anacostia River tunnel, which captures, redirects sewage to a wastewater treatment plant, was completed earlier this month, increasing the sewage-capture to 98 percent, he said.

       Water temperatures are starting to dip a bit too low to try to reschedule Splash for later this fall, so Sherard said they will probably look at dates next spring.

       “The plan is absolutely to see this through in the future,” he said.

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