THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090537
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
It started when Robert Dean was boating.
``I saw so much garbage on the water,'' recalls Dean, a Virginia Beach City Councilman, ``and I thought to myself, `This is ridiculous. I'm going to try to get a little cleanup going.' ''
Six years later, that little cleanup has become an interstate civic event, involving thousands of volunteers from New York to the North Carolina border, all committed to one thing for one day: picking up trash.
Lots of trash. Since the first cleanup in 1989, nearly 1 million tons of garbage, from old condoms to monster-truck tires, have been collected from the edges of the Chesapeake Bay, according to the Center for Marine Conservation, which painstakingly records and weighs each year's coastal haul.
Saturday is the latest installment of ``Clean the Bay Day,'' as this hands-on exercise in environmental stewardship is called.
This year, the effort is targeting inland streams and rivers that feed fresh water - and trash - to the Bay. Nearly 6,000 volunteers in Hampton Roads are expected to roll up their sleeves and help, Dean estimates, noting that this number, too, has increased every year.
``Why do so many people volunteer for a hot, dirty day of picking up trash? Well, think about it. Who wants to go down a beautiful shoreline and see trash? Nobody,'' Dean says. ``I mean, everyone is against trash.''
In Virginia Beach this year, dozens of civic clubs are granting access to their private waterfront property - a move that cleanup organizers hope will greatly increase their trash recovery.
``A lot of these areas were inaccessible to us before,'' said Ruby Arredondo, of the Clean Community Commission of Virginia Beach, who estimates that 50 civic clubs are opening this year. ``This is really one of the big pluses for us this year.''
Also, the Navy is allowing access to a 5-mile stretch of Canal 2 near Oceana Naval Air Station. A helicopter unit, including family members, will comb the banks of the military creek for trash and debris, Arredondo said.
The military is not the only federal government entity pitching in. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is donating the use of a huge crane mounted atop a barge that will accept heavy materials yanked from the lower reaches of the Elizabeth River.
And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is lending several boats that will ferry volunteers to remote areas and help carry loads of trash to dump facilities.
Most of the heavy waste is accepted by the Army Corps at its Craney Island disposal site at the mouth of the Elizabeth River, Dean said. Other materials are taken to the regional landfill, while some plastics and aluminum are separated for recycling, although dirt and muck make that process difficult.
About 100 divers are expected to accompany some cleanup teams, and Dean is talking to the Coast Guard about donating old nets to that could be filled with trash and lifted onto barges.
``This is getting to be a serious business,'' Dean said.
Organizers said that almost every year, volunteers discover illegal dumps. They are expecting even more this year, since teams are being sent inland to waters where dumping could be concealed easily by overgrown trees and brush.
While there always are offbeat finds each year, such as the refrigerator from the Elizabeth River or the box of rubber gloves from coastal Virginia Beach, most recovered trash is pretty mundane.
Cigarette butts lead the list almost every year (39,198 filters were bagged in 1994, for example). But as a group, plastics are the most prolific, encompassing 56 percent of trash collected last year.
Some other statistical highlights:
Most medical waste was retrieved from Newport News.
Most commercial and recreational fishing waste was recovered near Poquoson.
Most bottles were retrieved from Suffolk.
150 disposable diapers were collected.
929 cigarette lighters were recovered.
608 tires were recovered. ILLUSTRATION: JANET SHAUGHNESSY/Staff
by CNB