About a month ago, environmentalists took a dip in the heavily polluted Anacostia River in Haz-Mat suits to highlight the river's decrepit condition.

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Now, a federal judge has ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to approve new standards that would allow people to swim in the Anacostia in bathing suits.

"We want to see the river cleaned up not only for the aquatic life, but for the human life that wants...a clean, fishable, swimmable river," Anacostia Riverkeeper Dottie Yunger says.

The decision about the river is a big win for environmental groups, in which U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth declared that federal and local efforts to clean up the river have been inadequate.

D.C. Water says that rate hikes will be a consequence of the new measures. Over the next decade, rates were projected to go up from an average of $65 to $100, but now, rates may go higher.

"We feel it's our job that questions are raised on behalf of rate payers," D.C. Water Chairman George Hawkins said.

ABC7's Sam Ford has more.