Bynum, NC – On Saturday, March 20, the Haw River Assembly hosted the Haw River Clean Up A Thon. This is our 31st annual watershed wide effort to remove trash from along the river and its creeks. The event also raises awareness about the impacts of how our single use trash – especially plastics – ends up in our waters. Spanning Guilford, Alamance, Orange, Durham and Chatham counties, 364 volunteers at 35 different teams and locations removed 467 bags of trash, 29 tires and several other large items including box springs, a refrigerator, televisions, car bumpers and more.
Here are the details for the teams of volunteers cleaning up in Chatham County:
- Town Lake Park was cleaned up by New West Horizon and Mary DeMare’s team
- Seaforth Road Game Lands (where the Haw and Jordan Lake connect) was tackled by David Jester’s team of 11 where they found a truckload worth of rubber balls along with 22 bags of other traditional trash items
- Shane Brown with Carolina Canoe Club coordinated several paddle clean ups in Bynum and on the island off of the Robeson Creek Boat Launch. There they paddled the mountains of trash off of the island to shore
- Rock Rest, Dry Creek and Chicken Bridge had clean ups from long standing clean up volunteers Cynthia Crossen, Jeff Pettus and Cathy Markatos. They and neighbors catch trash near the waterways where they before it makes its way downstream
- Sarah Goddin’s team tackled the east bank of the Lower Haw River State Natural Area near Redbud as they have in year’s past
- The 15/501 Bynum Dam down to the Highway 64 bridge area along the Haw River had several teams spread out over a large area. These teams were led by Gretchen Smith and Nancy Strong with Friends of the Lower Haw SNA, Carolina Canoe Company, Bynum village neighbors, Girl Scout Troop 1006, and Maarten Simon Thomas leading Fearrington Green Scene folks. Dozens of bags of trash were collected in the area along the trails and by paddlers. Some notable items collected included a manual typewriter, rebar and pvc piping, a few tires and a plastic car bumper
- Robeson Creek tributaries throughout the Town of Pittsboro were picked up by many small teams led by Gary Simpson where they collected 27 total bags, of which 6 were plastics, mostly bottles. Some notable items they found included an air conditioner cover, coffee maker, car seat cover and book shelf
Much of this trash gets into our waters by washing off streets and yards during heavy rains into storm drains. Let’s all work to reduce this trash pollution in our waters, by not littering, and by reducing single use plastics. What we don’t capture along the creeks and rivers is all headed to Jordan Lake!
Elaine Chiosso – Executive Director
Haw River Assembly, P.O.Box 187, Bynum NC 27228
(919) 542-5790
Email: info@hawriver.org Website: www.hawriver.org