Watershed Cleanups Thousands of Tons of Success

April 2008 -- Thousands of volunteers across the watershed stepped up on Saturday, April 5 to turn the tide on trash around local waterways. Numerous watershed organizations hosted clean-ups along the South, Patuxent, Potomac, Susquehanna and other rivers and streams that flow to the Bay.

All along the Potomac River, the Alice Ferguson Foundation hosted their 20 th annual Potomac Watershed Cleanup. A total of 298 sites registered for the Saturday cleanup. So far, results have been tallied at 140 of those sites: a total of 4,276 volunteers collected 102 tons of trash, including 714 tires, 75,900 beverage containers and 7,717 plastic bags.

Along Rock Creek and Piney Branch in Montgomery County, Maryland, about a dozen scouts from Boy Scout Troop 52 scavenged the shoreline tracking down trash as part of the Potomac Watershed Cleanup. Their search rewarded them with such prizes as plastic trash bags, Pepsi bottles and tires.

On the South River in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, the South River Federation held cleanups at two sites, boasting participation by more than 50 volunteers. At one of these sites, volunteers pulled over 500 tires, 30 rims and a ton of assorted car parts from a hillside. They even found a Maryland license plate with an inspection sticker from 1980 -- discarded over 28 years ago.

The South River cleanup was part of a larger effort called Project Clean Stream, held at 122 cleanup sites in eastern and central Maryland. So far, results tallied from 57 sites show that 1,331 volunteers collected over 100,000 pounds of trash.

With the help of thousands of volunteers like those who participated in Project Clean Stream and the we may one day be able walk the shorelines of the Chesapeake without having to dodge broken bottles and spare tires.