The Lower Wapsipinicon River Cleanup Project, a canoe based river cleanup event, took place last weekend (August 20-21). Volunteers removed 2.27 tons of trash from 22 miles of the Wapsipinicon River between Walnut Grove Park in Toronto, Iowa and Allen’s Grove Park north of Donahue, Iowa. Read more from the CCCB and the trashy details
The cleanup has been held each year since 2006, covering sections of the entire Lower Wapsi from Anamosa all the way to the Mississippi River. Paddlers using Clinton County Conservation and private canoes have to date removed more than 30 tons of trash from the river with a 68% overall recycle rate. The trash is placed in containers donated by local contractors and disposed of at no charge to the clean-up.
A big thanks to all our sponsors. “The Wapsi is practically my back yard. I learned to paddle on her. I’ve enjoyed countless days swimming, paddling, fishing and camping along her sandy shores. It just feels right to give back a little,” stated coordinator Melisa Jacobsen. “This is a great way to bring people together to have fun and do good. The care of those people makes our local river more beautiful and safer for everyone to enjoy.”
Volunteer ages ranged from 6 to 71. Besides local residents, people came from Bettendorf, Des Moines, Dysart, Iowa City, Marion, Marshalltown, Monticello, Montpelier, North Liberty and Rock Island, Illinois. Two individuals from outside the U.S. (Denmark and Columbia) joined the cleanup for one of the two days. Jacobsen states, “All I can do as the coordinator is offer the opportunity, and it never stops amazing me how many folks come together for this action. My only hope is that one day I can call it all off due to lack of pollution. ”
Again all this happens through the generous support of sponsors: Clinton County Conservation Board; Lyondell basell; Behr Metal & Recycling; Clinton County Area Solid Waste Agency; Target; Soaring Eagle Nature Center.
The clean-up is an annual event held mid-August each year. If you would like to join the notification list, email Jacobsen at coordinator@lwrcp.org or look up “Lower Wapsi Cleanup” on Facebook, or bookmark the web page at www.lwrcp.org.
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What did we find in the water?
Even with river levels on the high side, the numbers were large.
The two-day river cleanup brought in:
1,760 lbs. metal; 1,240 lbs. tires; 1,418 lbs. trash; 122 lbs. glass
Grand total is 4,540 lbs. or 2.27 net tons
Of that grand total 69% was recycled!
That is 1.56 net tons kept out of the landfill!
Some items of interest:
9 flip-flops without matches
Suitcase full of rusty tools
11 bobbers
6 feet of chain-link fence
34 car and truck tires (22 picked from a roadside south of Calamus)
Two barrels
500 gallon tank
14’x3′ corrugated plastic culvert
6 yellow softballs
2 buckets hazardous household waste
Large section of tarp
Metal motor cover
Boat seat
Decorative bench frame
Inner-tube
Car battery
Collection of 8 adult video DVDs
Cooler
Aluminum framing
4 lawn chairs
Blow-up paddle boat
Spring mattress
Heavy cable
Lawn chair cushion
3 big broken plastic storage containers
Television
5 worm boxes
Styrofoam bumper absorber
Refrigerator
100 lb. propane tank
Carpeting
Pieces of plastic playground
Bait container from Credit Island Bait Shop
Perfume bottle
3 Watkins bottles
Lawn mower plastic housing
Futon mattress
Overwhelming number of plastic pop and water bottles – not recyclable after being in the river
Prior to LWRCP a large farm dump was removed from the hills of Sherman Park by LWRCP volunteers and the Clinton County Conservation Board yielding 3840 lbs of recyclable scrap metal and approximately 100 lbs of non-recyclable trash.
