WASHINGTON (7News) — For the last two years, 7News has reported on one of the largest construction companies in the District being accused of intentionally polluting the Anacostia River for more than a decade.

The company now has to pay the city nearly half a million dollars for the alleged contamination.

RELATED | Fort Myer Construction to pay $450k, overhaul practices to curb DC water pollution

In a lawsuit filed by the Office of the Attorney General, the District alleges that, for nearly a decade, Fort Myer Construction Corporation threatened D.C. residents’ health and safety by polluting waterways and ignoring cleanup orders.

7News first reported on Fort Myer back in 2024. The Office of the Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the corporation, alleging that Fort Myer allowed pollution to flow into District waterways for a decade.

“We’ve known for a long time that a lot of different federal agencies were potentially responsible parties in the toxic cleanup and other ways the water has been polluted,” said Anacostia River Keep Trey Sherard.

7News spoke to Sherard when the transgressions were first revealed.

“We’re really mad about the violations that have been documented in this complaint by Fort Myer,” said Sherard.

The suit stated that Fort Myer continued to neglect its maintenance and kept discharging petroleum, soap, salt, sediment and other substances into D.C.’s stormwater drainage system and waterways.

“It starts to get into the worms, insects, fish; at some point the fish gets into the people,” Sherard said.

The suit highlighted that since 2015, the District’s Department of Energy and Environment repeatedly inspected Fort Myer’s facility and issued multiple notices of infraction, warnings and orders and stated that Fort Myer would not address the conditions at its facility.

“If a corporation is already on a list of bad actors. They should not be getting D.C. taxpayer money,” Sherard added.

RELATED | DC AG sues Fort Myer Corporation over polluting city waterways, including Anacostia

The city said the company put its profits over the protection of D.C.’s critical natural resources. 7News found records showing that, at the same time, the city continued giving the corporation contracts of nearly $1.2 billion and continues to have active contracts with the company.