October 4, 2008
Conn. River clean up draws volunteers
Old Saybrook (WTNH) -- A massive effort to help clean and protect the Connecticut River was underway on Saturday. All along the river, volunteers were picking up garbage and taking notes.
"We found a lot of bottles, styrofoam," said Boy Scout, Sean Carlin.
Carlin and his fellow troop members are part of the Clean Team at The Turtle Creek Preserve in Old Saybrook. "It's kind of disturbing because people are throwing away their community and nature," he said.
The preserve is just one of 85 sites in four New England states along the Connecticut River, where volunteers are collecting garbage and debris from the river banks.
It's the Connecticut River Watershed Council's 12th annual source to sea clean up, which is a crucial project to protect the river and it's habitats.
"We're finding evidence of people's thinking that our natural resources can be trashed," said site organizer, Chris Cryder.
Volunteers are finding some big things, like rusted drums and tires. However, it turns out the biggest hazard for the water are some of the smallest things they're finding, like plastic cups and cigarette butts.
"Those cigarette butts are little toxic pellets. They are toxic. They have lead and arsenic in them and they damage the water quality," said Zach Chupak of Old Saybrook.
Volunteers are keeping a log of what they find, so environmental groups can see trends in garbage and prevent it. This year they're focus is on bottles without deposits.
"We're calculating how many are washing up. Trying to influence legislation for a bottle bill to give people an incentive to return them," Chupak said.
That's so more trash won't end up on the river banks. "You never really think people would just throw stuff over board," said another young volunteer.
Volunteers pulled 400 pounds of trash from the same spot last year. Now, they're making progress because they found much less today.
Last year the clean-up project collected a total of 50 tons of trash from the Connecticut River banks.
For more information go to www.ctriver.org
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