Stories from Mari-Osa

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up (Take Three)

Mari-Osa Public Access on the Osage River
March 6th & 7th, 2010
text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Alicia Pigg & Melanie Cheney

Every clean-up event is made of a variety of people and stories, each reflecting a different important part of the effort. Here’s a few stories to give you an idea of all the aspects of pulling this off (the true definition of behind the scenes is no one was there to take your picture...sorry for the lack of photos with these good stories...)–

Racin’ Dave and the River Relief Diagnostic Team
Friday morning, we arrived at the Karp Yard – the place we store our equipment and boats. Gear was loaded, boats hooked up, then we realized – our box truck was not starting. Racin’ Dave immediately hopped under the hood with his test light, checking wires and relay switches. He pretty quickly realized that the fuel pump relay was out. He found an extra wire, pulled the plug, and spliced the wire into the mount for the switch. He headed to O-Reilly’s to purchase a new switch while we all hit the road toward the Mari-Osa. “Just don’t turn the truck off until we get this new switch in there – you’ll be fine.”

On Saturday morning, the 160 (our most troublesome boat) shot craps, so a diagnostic team (Scot Heidbrink, Racin’ Dave, John Brady, others) gathered around the motor and went to work. Several problems were revealed and eventually they got the boat on the water. It never worked quite right, but it was proven once again how this clean-up machine can come to a screeching halt if it weren’t for this group of folks keeping things running.

MRCN Americorps and the Clean-up Set-UP Team
Upon arriving at the MariOsa on Friday, we ate lunch and then got to the tasks at hand. Bob Woodward from the Osage Campground dropped off his awesome trailer to serve as clean-up headquarters. Gear was unloaded into it, then we splashed a couple boats to scout the river and set up the dumpsite.

Three Americorps members from Missouri River Communities Network (Julia Karll, Rebecca Spicer and Lance Mallette) were on hand to help with the set-up, along with Sarah and Josh Pennington, Liz and Gabe Doubet, Capt. John Breyfogle, Rod Power, Anthony Pettit, John Brady, Jeff Barrow, Ruthie Moccia, Melanie Cheney and Racin’ Dave.

We shipped the flume across the river and unloaded it. Josh brought some orange hazard fencing and t-posts - Rod and Brey brought their power tools. As Brey fine-tuned the flume, adding a second level to get higher up on the hill, a group of us headed to the top of the dump with various implements of destruction.

The goal was removing big stuff stuck up at the top, kicking trash down, and knocking as much of this plume of broken glass, metal and plastic downhill as possible – closer to the trash flume. We created several trash avalanches, and the dump suffered a massive slump downslope. At one point, I surfed a trash wave, dragging bedsprings and coils of metal cable behind me. My mud boots held up nicely…

It became clear that the dump was increasingly unstable, and that falling rocks and trash were going to be an issue the next day. We decided to post one dump-master to oversee the whole thing, with bosses manning each flume to keep the system safe.

“Osage Bob” and the Campground
If your name is John or Dave or Bob or Joe, and you become part of the River Relief crew, chances are you’ll get a nickname to distinguish you from the others. We just started calling the owner of the Osage Campground, Bob Woodward, “Osage Bob” .

As in – “I’ll see if Osage Bob has a charger for this battery” or “I picked up some ice from Osage Bob’s for lunch” or “maybe Osage Bob’s got one..”

Bob’s campground also serves as a dune buggy/Volkswagon shop and yard, boat repair service, convenience store, water source, cultural headquarters and all around problem-solving headquarters. His pavilion (with overhead lights, electric and water) became camp headquarters. Our tents and vehicles filled up his campground. It was beautiful!

We can’t thank Bob enough for being such a wonderful host for us all weekend, answering our questions, fixing our problems -- always being helpful.

The Hardest-Working Group of Volunteers in Mid-Missouri
As I said before, the only announcement we did of this clean-up were folks that helped last year. So this year’s crew (134 volunteers at least!) was the toughest of the tough. We had three crews from area Wal-Marts – always a tough bunch that can turn their volunteer donation into cash for the clean-up through the Volunteerism Always Pays program at Wal-Mart. They also brought drinks, coolers and gift cards to help pay for lunch.

Lincoln University, once again, came out in force. One of our most dedicated partners is MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources & Related Sciences). They come to all of our Jeff. City area clean-ups – and know how to get it done. Not to mention Prof. Adrian Andrei, who has been coming to clean-ups with his daughter for several years. That dynamic duo did both shifts this time. Plus, many of his students came – and one found an old Studebaker hubcap – valued by one appraiser at the site at 250 bucks. Plus, a bunch of members of Lincoln Track and Field came out.

Repeats
Once you spend a Saturday working on that hill, you want to see it disappear. Most people that worked on the Mari-Osa this year had been there before, and they just stepped right in and got to work. A bunch of them worked both shifts. John and Walt Birmingham brought another Birmingham, brother Jesse. The Hearne twins, Leslie and Sarah, were superstars once again. That's them in the picture on the right.

John Van Eschen who lives on the bluff downstream of the dump, met us the day before as we were scouting. He was billy-goating up and down the steep slope, bagging up trash and bringing it down to shore where we could get it the next day. He said all he needed was one other person to climb up and help him the next day, and he could get this massive piece of farm equipment off the hill. The next morning, as John arrived at the clean-up, our clutch performer Nick Recker showed up. They both hopped on the next boat and got that thing down. Nobody knew what it was - someone offered that it could have been a grinder from a mill.

Boat Drivers
We really didn’t recruit boat drivers for this clean-up…until the last minute.
We’ve been working with Andy Neidert on his Race To The Dome canoe race and mentioned that it was starting to look like we’d need another boat for the MariOsa…
He was immediately on it! Andy and Leisha showed up ready to roll, splashed their boat and looked for direction. Finding none, they proceeded to fill the boat with trash. Over and over again….

The same thing happened to Josh Lallaman. Last year, in Jefferson City, he brought a University of Missouri boat to help at our clean-up at Noren Access – and stayed until the last load came in (he got the next-to-last load). So the week before MariOsa I called him and begged for his help. Not only did he come out to help, he hit the river two hours early to sample for paddlefish (there weren’t any yet, water temps still too cold). After lunch, he trailered his boat and went to Osage City for the Great Tire Wrangle.

The Great Osage City Tire Wrangle
We got a call from Cole County Health Dept. Enforcement Agent Mike Sapp in December. He was trying to help a local woman get rid of the tires that had been dumped on her property. Both Missouri Stream Team and Department of Natural Resources employees told him we were doing a clean-up in the area in March, so he called us up to see if we could help. Because we are a non-profit registered with the state to collect discarded tires, we are able to collect the tires, pay a local tire hauler to remove them, then get reimbursed from the Dept. of Natural Resources for a portion of the amount.

We were happy to help.

While we were at it, River Relief volunteers gathered other dumped tires in the area on Saturday morning. Our friend Soda Popp pointed out some areas where the river had brought in piles of tires.

In the afternoon, another tough bunch of volunteers met our loyal mid-Missouri tire hauler, Jim Salmons, back down in Osage City. They loaded all 240 tires that had been collected into his massive trailer. Jim came down to MariOsa the next day to get the remaining 60 tires.
John Brady was the leader of the tire get. From scouting the site, to leading the crews, to rolling tires to helping, eventually, dig the mud out of one gargantuan grader tire – he got it done.

Planting the hillside -
On Sunday morning following the clean-up, a crew of River Relief volunteers stuck around to plant native trees and grass seed on the dumpsite. Although we'll probably return again to work this area, we wanted something in place to hold the soil and reduce site erosion into the Osage River. Missouri Stream Team donated some flowering dogwood, rough-leaved dogwood, false indigo and nine-bark. Nadia Navarette, a native plant researcher at Lincoln University, donated manna grass, canadian wild rye and river oats seed.

It was tough planting the seedlings in the rocky, scrap-metal filled hillside, but we got it done! We are looking forward to checking on the progress of the seed.

Good Eats –
So much work goes into the food at a River Relief event. Jeanie Kuntz cooked up a massive batch of spaghetti sauce on Thursday for the Friday feast. Then, Friday afternoon, she made up the Three Sisters Soup for Saturday’s lunch. Thursday night, Melanie, Canaan and I made up a batch of chicken chili for Saturday. The hardcore breakfast crew put it together early, before everyone else woke up. Wal-Mart donated the sub sandwiches. We purchased the veggie subs from SubWay.

Jim Cooper, the Osage Navy smoker extraordinaire, stoked the hickory fires at 3:30 on Saturday morning to get ready for Saturday night’s feast. Even though I’ve sampled Jim’s fare several times, this was the best BBQ I’ve ever had….hands down.

Each one of these people poured love into this rolling feast. That love is a major part of what sustains these clean-ups. Thank you food angels!

Our Mari-Osa Story (so far)

Mari-Osa Dump, June 2007, before we started - photo by Racin' Dave

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up (Take Three)
Mari-Osa Public Access on the Osage River
March 6th & 7th, 2010

This has been our third year returning to the Mari-Osa Delta for a river clean-up. What spawned this tradition was a phone call from our friend Jeff Finley of the US Fish & Wildlife Service back in 2007. We were doing a clean-up further down the Osage River and he mentioned that we should go upstream and check out a legendary dumpsite near the MariOsa ramp. After we wrapped up the clean-up, Racin’ Dave and Anthony headed up to scout the dump. We’d never seen anything like it.

For a hundred years, people had been dumping their garbage off the top of a beautiful bluff overlooking the Osage. The refuse had spilled all the way to the river. On the right are a couple pictures Racin’ took that day. The dump was just upstream and across the river from the MariOsa Boat Ramp, so logistically it seemed like an ideal location to take on a massive dump like this.


2008

The first year, 2008, we worked for a day and a half on the site. As soon as volunteers arrived at the site, boats began filling with huge appliances and car parts. We filled four scrap metal rolloffs that day and one landfill rolloff. Almost 19 tons of garbage!
Click here for more details of the first Mari-Osa event...
http://www.riverrelief.org/event/mari-osa-dump-08/

2009
The big stuff was mostly gone, so we needed a new strategy to get stuff safely down the hill. Our Captain John Breyfogle reclaimed a 4’x20’ plastic culvert that washed up on his Missouri River beach, cut it into pieces, then reassembled it at the dump to serve as a “trash flume”. The toughest bunch of volunteers I’ve ever seen worked on the hill, and six other dump sites in the area. Over 13.1 tons of junk were removed that day.
http://www.riverrelief.org/event/mari-osa-dump-part-2/

and you really need to see the Trash Flume video...
http://www.youtube.com/user/rivertrash1875#p/a/u/0/2fzwTeAijPQ

2010
Because most of the auxiliary dumps were taken care of in 2009, we decided to focus more exclusively on the dump. The only advertisement we did was contacting folks that worked on the site last year. Still, over 130 volunteers worked on this clean-up – AWESOME! Over 12 tons of junk removed from the riverside in one day!

Mari-Osa Trash Tally 2010!!!

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up Take 3!

Mari-Osa Public Access on the Osage River
March 6th & 7th, 2010

Results Snapshot
Total Volunteers: 134
MRR Crew: 37
Boats: 6 (4 Missouri River Relief, 1 Personal – Neidert family, 1 University of MO)
River Level: 8 ft
River Miles Cleaned: 3.5
Stream Teams: 1875, 1876, 3526, 3988, 3651, 4000
Landfill Tons: 4.5 tons
Scrap Tons: 2.5 tons
Tires: 300 (240 from Osage City) 3 grader tires (Big Bruisers), 2 tractor tires ,
approximately 4.9 tons!!! (295 @ 30lbs each) & (5 @ 200 lbs each)
Total Tonnage: 12 tons

Groups & River Teams: The Osage River Navy, Wal-Mart stores #159, 451 & 5477, MANRRS – Lincoln University, The Rough Fishers, The River Rats, Ruffians, Lutrick, The Junk Diggers, Cave Man, Prima Donna, Stinkfish & the B-Flats

Trash Tally:

• 113 heavy blue bags of trash
• 72 bags of scrap metal
• 1 refrigerator door
• 5 chunks o’ Styrofoam
• 1 ten gallon igloo cooler
• 2 propane tanks
• 1 iron (no ironing board)
• 1 Hoover vacuum cleaner
• 1 furnace burner
• 1 chest freezer shot full of holes
• 1 washer ringer lid
• 7 five gallon plastic buckets
• 1 metal 55-gallon drum
• 1 plastic 55 gallon barrel
• 5 old metal paint buckets
• 1 chair
• 1 toilet base w/ florette
• 3 bed frames
• One boatload full of scrap metal to include tension cable, bed springs & rusty chairs
• 1 decorative gate post w/ curled spirals
• 2 rolls of barbed wire
• chicken wire
• 2 rolls of hogwire
• 1 Disc - farm implement
• 1 soil aerator
• 10 feet of steel pipe
• 1 vertical valve for lawn mower fly wheel
• 1 egg incubator
• 2 theatre chair sides
• 1 glass tv screen
• ½ of a deer target – the butt end
• 1 converted anchor to a dog tie up
• 1 paddle boat in pieces
• 1 1976 MO license plate
• 1 brake rotor
• 1 muffler
• 1 exhaust pipe
• 1 rear axle – Ford? very old
• 1 metal car bumper
• 1 tv antenna
• 1 whetstone
• 1 child wheelbarrow
• 1 tennis ball
• 1 bicycle fender
• 1 fishing rod
• 3 swimming noodles
• 1 ac compressor
• 1 gear box
• 1 sheet of roofing fiberglass
• 8 frying pans
• 10 piece assorted swall scrap metal
• 1 rubber easy chair
• 1 bag carpet scraps
• 1 steel trap w/ finger bones
• 1 box fan housing
• 3 antique perfume bottles
• 1 baby doll head
• 1 baby doll leg
• 1 old rusty toy truck in pieces
• 1 depression era glass ashtray
• 1 antique PBR beer can
• 1 old glass Coca-Cola bottle
• 1 antique scale
• 1 Studebaker hubcap signed on the inside with a name & city from Oklahoma
• 1 silver spoon
• 1 duck decoy
• 2 boat lower units
• 1 tiny triceratops

More Mari-Osa March Madness

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up, Part 2
March 7, 2009
Mari-Osa MDC River Access, Osage River
text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Emily Kunz, Dylan Lehrbaum & Richard Levell

check out our Mari-Osa Results page

First of all, here's our results statistics from this outrageous clean-up. Then, a few stories from the day. Thank you so much to all of you that came to help out.

Total Volunteers: 162
MRR Crew: 29
Boats: 8 (4 Missouri River Relief, 2 US Fish & Wildlife, 1 Missouri Dept. of Conservation and 1 Osage River Rats Stream Team)

Stream Teams: 1875, 1876, 3784, 3526
Rivermiles: 3
River level: 3.8 feet (St. Thomas gage)
Scrap Tons: 6.5
Landfill Tons: 3.3
Tires: 212 (3.3 tons)
Total Tonnage: 13.1

Names of River Teams: The Osage River Rats, the Sand Pipers, MANNRS-Lincoln University, the Hard Core Group, Corona, the Scallywags, Team of G, the Mohawks, the Elite 8, the J-Byrds, the Cardinals, the Christenburgs, the Fylan Troup

Clean-ups like this are such a convergence of interesting people with their own interesting stories. There were 162 different stories from the day, and I could only see a few. Just wanted to point out a few of them....

The Most Amazing Group of Volunteers Ever!
The night after the clean-up, our crew gathered around a campfire for a "pass the feather" about how the day went. Everyone was AMAZED at the quality of volunteers that worked that day. There were some folks that worked on the dump all day long, tirelessly filling trash can after trash can working on the steep hillside. At many of our big clean-ups, there are a large percentage of people looking for a nice morning on the river - which is great. But this was a different group of people all together. People were chomping at the bit to get back out there after lunch. No one was daunted by these seemingly impossible tasks we had set out for ourselves. It was one of the most inspiring days of my life. THANK YOU!!!!

The Trash Flume
I've posted a story elsewhere about how this came about. But suffice it to say, this was one cool addition to the show, allowing us to speedily and safely move TONS of trash down a steep hill, saving many backs in the process. Thanks to Captain Breyfogle for being the brains and brawn behind making this happen. And thanks to Rod Power for being the willing screwdriver behind the endeavor. Check out the You-Tube video, filmed by Jim Karpowicz.

The Tire Pile
Located just upstream of the 50/63 bridge, this was actually a bank stabilization project from days long past. There used to be a cabin perched above here, but the cabin is now gone and the landowner gave us permission to remove these unsightly tires. Last year we decided not to put too much energy into this, so this year it was a major goal. We put Jen Courtney and WT Bryan in charge of a group of super-hard-working Lincoln U students from the group MANNRS (Minorities in Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences). It was not an easy task. The tires were filled with rocks and trash that had to be cleaned out so they could be recycled.
Also...major thanks to Jim Salmons and his son Jim for dealing with this crazy batch of tires.

The Wire Pile
The Boehm family has farmed along the Osage River for generations. Past generations had dumped old scrap metal along the banks, hoping to keep the bank from eroding. Most of this was rolls and rolls of barbed wire and old fencing. We approached the current landowner, Clarence Boehm about removing this at our clean-up. He was happy to let us do this, and even came down to cut some trees and brush out of the way for us. This was a very difficult spot to clean-up - wire is just not fun to deal with. But this hardcore crew busted it out!

The Osage River Navy
This is a group of boaters and partiers that live near the Mari-Osa Delta. They have all been extremely appreciative of the clean-up efforts and over the past two years many have come out to help. From Bob Woodward, who lent us his trailer and hosted a BBQ for us in the evening, to British Bob Abery, who oversaw the dumpsters, to Skip Jenkins who posted fliers for us, to Jim Cooper who smoked up a fine BBQ dinner for our crew, these are a bunch of amazing men and women who love the Osage River and are glad to see it get cleaned up. Viva la Navy!

The Sinking Suburban Incident (Right Place, Right Time, Tools for the Job)
Often on river clean-ups something completely unrelated to the clean-up happens that requires immediate attention. Last year in Sioux City it was a massive boat dock that was careening down the Big Sioux River. Our boats were already in the water hauling trash, so they detoured up the Big Sioux to catch and stabilize the dock.
This year, at the Mari-Osa, we had an incident take place right next to us on the boat ramp. A boater with his two sons was trying to trailer his boat when the cable unspooled, leaving the boat drifting out in the river. The older son took the wheel, but apparantly was in neutral instead of drive - the Suburban quickly started rolling down the ramp into the river. We were unloading trash right next to them and jumped to action.
One of us jumped in the water, made sure both boys were stable and the Suburban (which had by now stalled) was in park. Jeff Barrow waded out and tied a rope to the front bumper while Indi Frank dumped his load of junk and brought the skid steer into position above the sinking suburban. They tied off the Suburban and started to pull it out of the water. By the time the bumper emerged, it seemed that the rope might break. Others had run up the hill to retrieve a chain and we hooked onto the skid steer with that.
Indi pulled the rig with it's trailer up the ramp to safety. No one was hurt.
Right place, right time, tools for the job.
(photo by Richard Levell)

Our boat drivers
In addition to our crew of four boats, we often rely on agency boat drivers to come help us haul volunteers and trash. This stuff is impossible without them, and for the past 8 years many of these biologists, agents and rangers have come again and again to help us with our mission of cleaning up the Missouri River.
This time we were lucky to have Mark Haviland and Pat Masek, MDC conservation agents for Cole and Osage Counties, bring a boat. They know the Osage as well as anyone, and they worked their butts off all afternoon, with the help of MDC employee Phil Pitts.
We were also joined by US Fish & Wildlife fisheries biologists Patty Herman and Colby Wrasse. These two are old clean-up pros, and they made amazing things happen at the Mari-Osa.
A special treat - a group of locals just started up a Stream Team upstream on the Osage called the Osage River Rats. They brought their little boat and hauled trash all day.
Thanks to all of you!!!!!

Mari-Osa 09 Trash Tally!

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up, Part 2

March 7, 2009
Mari-Osa MDC River Access, Osage River
check out our Mari-Osa Results page

Working through these old dumps, you know you're going to come up with some trash treasures. Here's the unbelievable list of stuff volunteers pulled off the Osage River at our March 7, 2009, event.

Filling two 30-yard dumpsters of scrap metal and one 30-yard dumpster of landfill, we found (at least):

106 large bags of Landfill Trash
76 large bags of Scrap Metal
24 32-gallon trash cans of Broken Glass
210 Car & Truck Tires
2 large Tractor Tires
2 Tractor Inner Tubes
3 Refrigerators
9 Washing Machines
1 Dishwasher
2 Driers
3 Hot Water Heaters
1 Tricycle
1 mangled Bicycle
1Car Fender
6 large pieces of Styrofoam
20 ft. of Corrugated Pipe
42 ft. of misc. Pipe
1 Cooler
7 5-gallon plastic Buckets
6 metal Buckets
1 cast iron Pot
3 Stoves
1 Stove Front & Drawer
2 Stove Tops & Pieces
1 massive Brake Drum
1 metal Love Seat Swing
11 Box Springs
1 Head Board
4 Cow Panels
Several rolls of Barbed Wire
25 ft. of Cable Wire
8 Rolls of Fencing
7 Chairs
1 Lamp
1 Toilet
1 MO 98 Road Sign
2” Copper fitting (Steam)
1 Hog Waterer
3 metal Hub Cap’s
1 Fender from Antique Truck
½ of a Car front end Grill & Headlight
1 Alternator
1 Crank Shaft
1 Car Seat Springs
2 Tail Pipes
1 Drive Shaft
2 pieces of Carpet
8 pieces of roofing Sheet Metal
½ of a Pasture Gate
1 double Kitchen Sink
1 Counter Top
1 boat full of assorted Wire & Fencing
1 ancient Boat Motor
1 coil of Heavy Cable
1 Sewing Machine
1 Culvert
1 Tractor Gear Box
1 Air Filter for tractor
1 mini Ironing Board
1 Hide-a-Bed Frame
8 welded Wire Hog Panels
1 cast iron Furnace Grate
1 Brush Hog Deck
30 corrugated Metal Panels
1 VCR
1 push Lawnmower
1 antique French Fry Cutter
1 Snoopy Soap Dish
2 sections of a toy Train Track
1 headless Raccoon Statue
2 Teapots
2 Wash Tubs
1 toy metal Dump Truck
1 See Saw
1 Baseball Glove
1 shot-up Sign that reads: “$50 Reward for information leading to arrest and conviction of any person or persons found willfully mutilating or destroying this sign. The O.J. Gude Co. NY”
1 toy Cash Register
1 soggy book titled “Shaping History”
The letter “C”
1 decorative Perfume Bottle

photos by Emily Kunz, Richard Levell & Melanie Cheney

Click here to check out our results page on our website, with other cool links -

Cleaning up an old mess...

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up
March 7, 2009
Mari-Osa MDC Public Access, Osage River
check out our Mari-Osa results page

The Mari-Osa
There is a spot along the Osage River where the Maries River valley enters just below a row of high bluffs, referred to as the Mari-Osa Delta. For years this was the location of the Huber Ferry, shuttling folks coming to and from between the state capitol and places eastward across the wide Osage.

Now a bridge crosses the river there, and a string of campgrounds, cabins and trophy homes lines the river. One of the legacies of being a conduit of human traffic for so many years is the Huber Dump. For decades, everyone in the area used this easy bluff access as the place to dump everything they didn’t want any more. The bluff top, called by some “Contemplation Point” was also a popular hang out.

The view from the top of the bluff. Photo courtesy of Jason Jenkins, Rural Missouri magazine

The Dump
“Saturday, we’d load up a pickup truck with junk and drive up to the bluff and dump it off,” said one long-time local who shall remain unnamed. “That night we’d go back with a case of beer, party and throw the empty cans off the bluff.

The Dept. of Conservation shut the dump down a couple decades ago, stringing a cable across the roadside above, and busting dumpers. Most of the trash we’ve found there seems to be decades old.

Over the years, the dump was a landmark, a curiosity and, to some, an embarrassment. At last year’s Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up, one of the volunteers from one of the nearby towns talked about this. “We have a sister town in Germany and a few years ago a group of people from that town came here to visit,” she said. Some locals took the visitors on a cruise up the Osage. The travelers remarked on the beauty of the river and how it reminded them of Germany. But when they saw the dump they were kind of outraged. “When I heard it was going to get cleaned up, I had to come help.”

The "Before" Shot - this is what it looked like before the clean-up started. photo by Racin' Dave Stevens

Others just viewed it as a reminder of times past, of a time not long ago when there wasn’t trash service, when metal wasn’t easily scrapped or recycled. And from what I’ve seen, most folks are glad to see it go away.

One of those people is Jeff Finley, a biologist for the US Fish and Wildlife Service who has helped at many River Relief clean-ups and learning festivals over the years. A few years back, we were doing a clean-up at the mouth of the Osage, and he mentioned the dump and suggested we check it out. Racin’ Dave and Anthony scouted it out on their way home and the challenge was on.

“For years I’ve been cruising by that dump on my shoal runner,” he said. “I’d always thought somebody outta do something about that mess. Then I realized I knew just the people to do it.”

Over the years, the dump settled into pseudo-geologic layers: big appliances, cars, tires and farm implements moved to the bottom, spilling into the river. Uphill is a plume of steel cans, small toys, random household utensils and bottles. The entire thing is under laid with a layer of broken glass and shards of steel. Not exactly safe and really ugly.

Last year we held a clean-up of the dump, focusing on the big stuff at the base of this pile. Volunteers pulled almost 20 tons of junk out of there, shuttled across the river by boat to the Mari-Osa boat ramp at the base of the 50/63 bridge.

The 2008 Mari-Osa Clean-up - the view from the hill. photo by Lindsay Tempinson

This year we decided to start working uphill, and also put crews out on some of the other old dumps along that stretch. We debated for months on what the best approach was and came to the conclusion that we could really use a chute to quickly and safely slide trash down the steep, dangerous hill. One of our crew volunteers, Liz Doubet was looking around for rental donation of a construction chute when the brainstorm hit John Breyfogle.

The Flume (should be pronounced with a French accent)
John “Capt. Brey” Breyfogle, longtime River Relief crewmember and also member of the Alligator Cove Stream Team #1876, lives along the Missouri River just downstream of the Kansas City metro area. During the 2007 flooding, a new sandy beach began to form in the cove. Also deposited there was a 20 foot long, 4 foot wide plastic culvert, corrugated on the outside and smooth on the inside. He started calling the new beach “Culvert Beach”.

A couple weeks ago he called up with his idea. He’d dig out the culvert and cut it into pieces that could be reassembled into a flume to shoot trash cans down the hill. With a shovel, a saws-all and his neighbor’s backhoe, he went at it. Even after getting 5 inches of snow!

He hauled the pieces on his trailer to the ramp on the Friday before the clean-up. We loaded it in the Saskia and shuttled it over to the dumpsite. After a little head scratching, we decided it should go from the first terrace to the river. Trash would get loaded into trash cans up top, then dropped down the flume and either loaded in boats or bagged up so the cans could go back up again.

Adrian Andrei from Lincoln University oversees the trash flume operation at our 2009 clean-up.
photo by Emily Kunz

The pieces were laid out on the hill, screwed together into a flume, and staked in place with rebar.

It worked flawlessly. All day long, trash cans full of debris (mostly recyclable steel cans) went flying down the flume, where they were moved into boats and shuttled across to the ramp. Awesome!!

Adventures from the small boat's perspective

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up Part 2

Loose Creek, MO, Osage River

March 7, 2009

by Vicki Richmond

MRR’s fleet has been growing almost as fast as our events. We’ve amassed a barn full of trash equipment, tools, supplies, vehicles and boats. And we had to start somewhere: with one small boat. The Karp, the MRR 150. She’s the smallest of our boats at just 18 feet. She’s got the smallest motor, a 50 HP Mercury. She’s dwarfed by the larger plate boats with larger motors by nearly 10 feet. And she’s still a dependable asset at each and every clean up.

The Karp has earned her stripes on each and every one of our 46 clean ups. She’s our first boat, and is now used as a people hauler and kept clean to use for press junkets at events. She’s taken on a little sideways tilt and there’s some play in the throttle. It takes the correct grimace to start her. She’s been the Kansas City training boat and has been instrumental in getting new captains their stripes.

This weekend, she made her way to the Osage River, after a layover at a marine dealer this winter getting her kinks worked out. The Osage was her first outing this spring and I was honored to be her captain.

The morning began with a trip to the Huber dump, to drop off site leaders and equipment. A quick touch of shore and, with the help of First Mate Bill, crew and supplies were unloaded. The 50 made her way back to the ramp to begin the shuttle of volunteer crews to sites.

Six trips later, we began picking up our crews and returning to the ramp. Each trip brought people and trash back to the ramp just in time for lunch. I grabbed a sandwich and some soup and headed back to the boats. As I sat for a moment relaxing in the sun, Lynne came looking for a captain. She had a team ready to haul trash and was on the hunt for a boat and a driver. We loaded quickly and headed across the river to a tire pile.

Tires were carefully loaded, bagged trash carefully balanced and we were off to the ramp. After unloading, we began this shuttle over and over again. Pull to shore and load the boat, Lynne carefully balancing loads while Ty and Nick threw bags and tires into the hull. Back to the ramp where crews unloaded the bags destined for the landfill and tires for recycling. I think we made 7 trips with trash.

She ran a little rough. She struggled upstream laden with trash. But she is a testament to the tenacity of the core of River Relief. We may be a little tilted, and certainly have our quirks, but always, always, come through!

Somebody ought to do something about that mess...

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up
March 1-2, 2008
Mari-Osa MDC Public Boat Access on the Osage River

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Lindsay Tempinson and Jen Courtney
for more details, visit our website: www.riverrelief.org
for a pdf results page, click here

What makes the perfect river clean-up?

Perfect weather.

You get a bunch of trash.
The boats all work.
You meet new people.
Your friends that live in the area come out to help.
There’s a bunch of local river rats that like what’s going on and make it their clean-up.
You see a flock of pelicans.
You have a nice place to stay on the riverside.

Luckily, on March 1-2, all that stuff happened! Was this the perfect clean-up?

What we did, with the help of 94 volunteers, was to take a massive chunk out of a decades-old dumpsite spilling into the Osage River just upstream of the Mari-Osa Delta. Crews spent a day and a half pulling 18.7 tons of junk from the base of that dump. We didn’t get it all, but I think the momentum to make it all disappear has begun.



Our friend, Jeff Finley of the US Fish and Wildlife service, pointed the dump out to us. His dad owns a house on the banks of the river just downstream of the mouth of the Maries and he’d driven his shoalrunner by that dump a hundred times. What he told me is that one day he drove by that dump thinking, “Somebody ought to do something about that,” when he realized…he knew just the right folks.

Once we started calling around, Skip Jenkins, who lives right down there too, let us know that not only would he help out, he had a bunch of folks called the “Osage River Navy” that were going to pitch in. Pretty soon, the Navy had us set up with a trailer headquarters (with an awning), came to our pre-clean-up pow-wow, gave us free ice, smoked us up a fine BBQ dinner, and even brought the leftovers for lunch the next day. Bob Woodward from the Osage Campground and More fixed our ailing 60 horse Mercury. A bunch of them hit the dumpsite all day Saturday and even came back for more on Sunday.

A lot of friends from other Stream Teams, the Department of Conservation, the Department of Natural Resources, the Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Guard, folks that’d helped on other clean-ups and family came out to help. At the last minute, Jarad Milligan from MDC brought a boat and hauled trash in its bow all morning. People who’d seen the dump for years and saw the clean-up in the paper came out. Folks whose grandparents used that dump came out.

One guy (who made me promise not to use his name) even remembered that when he was a teenager they’d go to the dump on Saturday morning and dump a truck full of junk off that bluff. Saturday night, he’d come back with his friends and a case of beer and throw their empties down on the pile.



As soon as we had a boat full of volunteers, they started tearing into the pile. The first boat full of appliances came rolling in to the ramp before the last boat of volunteers went out.



After a morning of hauling junk, we had to call in two more scrap metal dumpsters (thank you Harold from Galamba for working overtime bringing those out!) to hold the trash stash. We took a group photo in front of one brimming dumpster and headed out for more.

The nicest thing about a clean-up like this is at the end of the day, the people that did it can see a huge difference. The bottom of that dump pile melted away. They just made their river a better place and every time they go by it in a boat, they’ll remember it.

If only we had massage tables, it would have been the perfect clean-up.

Thank You!!!

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up
March 1-2
Mari-Osa MDC Public Boat Access

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Jen Courtney and Lindsay Tempinson

This clean-up was a success because of the help of a lot of different folks.

An extra special thanks to Bob Woodward, owner and operator of the Osage Campground and More. He delivered a storage trailer for clean-up headquarters, gave us free ice and water, fixed our 60 horse Mercury and hosted a post clean-up BBQ in his shop. Those are only the things that I am aware of.

Thanks to Skip Jenkins for bouncing out of the hospital right into full host mode. He and Jim Cooper smoked dinner for us all day long in the Osage Navy BBQ.


All the amazing characters of the Osage River Navy for welcoming us to their stretch of the Osage and making the day work.

The 94 volunteers who gave up the most beautiful Saturday and Sunday of the year (so far) to make the Osage a more beautiful and safe place.

Fabick CAT for donating rental of a skid steer (and delivering it!)

Jeff Finley and his parents Mark and Maggie Finley for letting us use (and hopefully not abuse) their beautiful riverside home and boat slips for the crew to stay in the lap of luxury.

Harold from Galamba Metals for staying late to deliver two more scrap dumpsters.


Missouri Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers for stopping by on his way home from State Parks’ opening trout day to work the ramp all afternoon. He’s been doing clean-ups since the 70’s, and he keeps coming out to make it happen.

Missouri Stream Team for bags, t-shirts, support, and sending a couple of your most valuable players out to help. Also to Missouri River Communities Network and their Americorps Stream Team Assistant Project.

Jarad Mulligan of the Dept. of Conservation for bringing his sampling boat to haul trash.

Rural Missouri, KOMU Channel 8, the Jefferson City News Tribune and the Linn Unterrified Democrat for showing the public what these volunteers did.

Mid-Missouri Solid Waste Management District, for always supporting us in the area and purchasing our latest boat, trailer, motor and a slew of useful tools.

Hy-Vee and Gerbes of Columbia for donating food.

Westlakes and Home Depot of Columbia for donating tools.

Pat Jones for supporting these local projects.

Jim Salmons for hauling off our mangled and muddy tires. Allied Waste for bringing our landfill dumpster.

All of our sponsors for making this machine run.

And, especially, the Missouri River Relief volunteer crew, who invented this crazy project and make it work year after year, rivermile after rivermile, ton after ton, refrigerator after refrigerator. And for making it fun!

The Saturday Afternoon Clean-up Crew!

Mari-Osa Trash Tally!

Mari-Osa Dump Clean-up March 1-2, 2008
Mari-Osa MDC Public Boat Access

photos by Lindsay Tempinson and Jen Courtney
Tally meticulously maintained by "Sedalia" Tim Clanton

Total Volunteers: 94
MRR Crew: 18
Boats: 4 (3 Missouri River Relief boats and 1 Missouri
Department of Conservation)
Stream Teams: 1875, 1876, 2660, 2948, 3131, 741, 987, 549,
2489, 2793
Rivermiles: 0.5
Scrap Tons: 13.2
Landfill Tons: 5.5 tons
Tires: 79
River level: 11.5 feet

As volunteers peeled away layers of this old dump, some amazing historical objects were revealed and then removed. Most folks went home with a cool old bottle or trash treasure in their pockets. We had tried in vain to get an anthropologist to come along and study the dump contents, but instead, everyone became an anthropologist!

Filling four 30-yard dumpsters of scrap metal and one 30-yard dumpster of landfill, we found (at least):

212 bags of trash
195 tin/steel cans
196 buckets
161 barrels
48 tubs
2 freon/gas cylinders
34 refrigerators
49 hot water heaters
39 stoves
7 furnaces
10 kitchen sinks
9 rusty stoves
1 baby stroller
1 1960s plastic microscope
1 water logged brassierre
1 microwave
1 television
1 oil pump
1 iron jack
1 furnace
1 shortwave tube radio
1 computer
2 baby dolls
1 typewriter
1 bbq grill barrel
1 elementary school desk
1 camping thermos
1 box fan
5 dryers
1 steel & wooden wagon tongue
1 “Rug Doctor” carpet cleaner
1 large Kelvinator sign
1 juke box
1 sewing machine stand
2 AC units
60 washing machines

2 wringer washers
2 toilets
79 tires
35 car body parts & panels
1 pink 1950s Ford
1 rusty hood of a 1956 DeSota
1 front fender of a 1949 Studebaker
1 Ford clutch pressure plate (1963)
2 Cadillac hub caps
1 blue 1956 Pontiac
5 gas tanks
12 wheels
8 car seats
4 mufflers
9 gas cans
4 car batteries
5 Missouri license plates (1976, 1930, 1931, 1971)
10 car seat springs
2 clay pipes
19 lengths of guttering
786 assorted scraps of rusty metal (sheet-stamped-angle-tube)
34 panels or rolls of fencing
16 pieces of barbed wire
12 pieces of 1” wire cable
158 pieces of steel wire (small to large)
74 pieces of structural iron and tube
14 pieces of cast iron
23 bed frame
37 bed springs
2 stereos
7 gas grills
2 gas push mowers
1 roaster oven
108 cooking utensils
2 big wheels
1 bicycle
1 ½ tricycles
1 unicycle
1 office chair
1 enamel chamber pot “thunder bucket” shot full of bullet holes
7 metal chairs
4 lamps
36 metal cabinets & shelving
2 bicycle wheels
1 snow sled
3 commercial clothes dryer
1 ironing machine
1 hand iron
1 ornate cast iron wood stove
1 porcelain bathtub in pieces