Lessons in keeping rivers clean
Earlier this summer, as the drought shriveled crops across southern Wisconsin, I went to the athletic club in downtown Janesville, parked on the plaza and gazed over the railing. I couldn’t remember a time when the river had been so low. Trash including a bicycle and a pier were sticking out of the placid waters.
It would be a great time for the city to rally its employees and clean up the trash, I thought. I emailed the city about whether it might divert employees from other projects for such a cleanup. I got no response.
While on vacation two weeks ago, my wife and I took our grandkids, 10-year-old Lexi and 3-year-old Remy, to see the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa. It’s an easy two-hour drive west of Janesville.
The kids discovered the aquarium has many hands-on and educational displays. We spent the entire afternoon there; employees nearly locked the doors behind us.
Much of the focus is on keeping rivers clean. Did you know that the trash in your streets that some slob motorist tossed out and that you’re too lazy to pick up doesn’t magically disappear? It eventually gets flushed down a storm sewer and most likely winds up in the Rock River.
The museum showed that, in some river cities, volunteers paint messages explaining this pollution flow on storm sewer grates, yet Janesville hasn’t done so.
Check out the mix of trash from a cleanup in one aquarium display in the photo below.
The aquarium has a short video you can watch that shows an NBC report. A young man who grew up on the Mississippi proposed a massive cleanup while in high school. He approached his superintendent, who thought it would be too difficult. Today, Chad Pregracke operates a cleanup flotilla funded by corporate donations. In the first eight years, it collected 1,000 tons of river debris, including 500 refrigerators, 14,000 tires, more than 100 TVs and even a grand piano. His former superintendent pilots the flotilla’s barge. Check it out here.
The aquarium explains that plastics don’t disappear; instead, nature continues to grind them into smaller and smaller particles that wind up in the food chain. Reading about it is one reason I collected broken parts from a Bic lighter in gas station parking lot last week. They were lying next to a storm sewer grate. I tossed the pieces in the trash.
The past two falls, Janesville’s Dave Peterson and Dave Wirth have teamed up to lead local cleanup efforts as part of the Great Rock River Sweep. Peterson is my neighbor, and he told me last week he’s willing to help lead it again this year on Saturday, Sept. 8, and would be contacting Wirth.
Here’s hoping they follow through and that many caring individuals and groups join them.
Greg Peck can be reached at (608) 755-8278 or gpeck@gazettextra.com. Or follow him on Twitter or Facebook
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:11 a.m.
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saxcat- the can is unopened.... :)
Aug 14, 2012 at 7:22 p.m.
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Like many issues, there are those that are helping and those that contribute to the problem.
Aug 14, 2012 at 2:58 p.m.
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mikef, as it is a schlitz, it was probably in the liquor store a while too :)
Aug 14, 2012 at 2:52 p.m.
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Cigarette butts thrown out of vehicles into the curb and grass clippings blown out into the street...I wonder where those go? I am thinking that some of it may make it into the waterways. I hope I am wrong.
Aug 14, 2012 at 12:23 p.m.
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Slob motorist? Really? Looks like Greg just crossed a line that is not very becoming of an editor.
Aug 14, 2012 at 10:34 a.m.
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I was just there with a group of kids in mid July! I remember that display. I pointed out to one of the kids the can on the left and told her to look closely at the top. That is an old style can with the removable pull tab. She had never seen one like that before. Guess it had been in the river for a while.
Aug 14, 2012 at 8:57 a.m.
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Yes you do.. If you have a boat you need to register it (costs money). If you want to catch fish, you need to get a license (costs money). I can see registering a car, you have roads and stuff to maintain. Its not like the river needs maintenance crews. But I know someone that just had to pay to register a canoe with a tiny motor on it. Come on.
Aug 14, 2012 at 8:28 a.m.
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You don't have to pay to use the Rock River in Janesville. It's sad when people bring glass bottles that get broken and they potentially cut the feet of people enjoying the river. It is at the center of our city, why wouldn't we all take care of it?
Aug 14, 2012 at 7:27 a.m.
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What do you expect when they treat the citizens the way they do? The river belongs to the people,.BUT.. You have to pay to get fish from it, pay to put a boat on it... So there is no ownership. The attitude is..."If I have to pay to use it...my money can go to cleaming it up because I dont care." ive even heard old people say this as they toss cans out the window. The more you make people pay the less they care. -Just sayin.
Aug 14, 2012 at 4:23 a.m.
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Janesville does actually have notices on sewer grates downtown near the river, but hardly on all storm sewers. I'm not sure what the difference might be.
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The city has a report on the stormwater utility, with some general information about river-wide environmental awareness efforts that seem to be fairly invisible in these parts.
http://www.ci.janesville.wi.us/modules/s...
Aug 13, 2012 at 5:58 p.m.
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Last year it was those nasty litter-bugs, and now it's those slob motorists. I'm guessing that this pattern should be mentioned to your shrink next visit.
Aug 13, 2012 at 4:37 p.m.
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This is something that needs repeated attention, or we forget. Thank you for that.
I've noticed trash in my street magically disappearing though. Like you, we pick it up and throw it away. I'd like to know who's been trashing the corner of Rugar and Wright road though.
Aug 13, 2012 at 4:07 p.m.
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Thank you for the article, Greg. As someone who spends a lot of time canoeing the local waterways, I am often appalled by the way folks treat our rivers and streams. I guess they are used to mom picking up after them. Just remember folks, whenever it comes to nature, TAKE OUT WHAT YOU TAKE IN! thank you in advance.
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