Early Saturday morning, November 5, 2016, our members were joined by volunteers from Nansemond River Preservation Alliance (NRPA) for our second River Clean- up event. Also participating were employees and family members from the Sev1Tech company.
A total of 54 volunteers participated. The focus of this event was cleaning the river bank behind the businesses on North Main Street from the Nansemond River Bridge to the Suffolk water tower. The Suffolk Litter Control Coordinator supplied equipment and worked with the Suffolk Parks and Recreation Department to establish an accumulation area for the trash and debris collected.
Volunteers worked from 9 AM until about noon and collected 112 bags of trash, 18 tires, 3 wooden pallets, wire fencing, buckets, rusty drums, 9 shopping carts, a tricycle, a TV and a toilet. One of the volunteers said, “We didn’t find the kitchen sink but we did get the toilet.” In addition to the trash and debris removed, volunteers identified additional material that was either too large or inaccessible due to vegetation or the steep slope of the river bank.
These river clean-up events are conducted in accordance with the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) Adopt-A-Stream Program. Now that we have completed the second clean-up event, we will be working with the City of Suffolk to determine where to post the Chapter’s Adopt-A-Stream sign.
With the completion of this second event, we have covered most of the area of the river that we adopted—from the dam to the Hilton Garden Inn. Future clean-ups can focus on those areas and items that we have identified and mapped. We will be working on ways to access the steeper sections along the bank and methods to remove many of the tires we have located in the river.
Although it seems like with each clean-up we gather more material, our progress will be evident when the trash and debris becomes harder to find. River clean-up events give everyone an opportunity to spend time enjoying the outdoors and contributing to our community.
