{Reconnaissance and Relief}

St. Joseph Missouri River Clean-up

Saturday, May 17, 2014

French Bottom Boat Ramp, St. Joseph, MO

Blogmaster's Note - This blog was originally posted by our amazing writerly volunteer Tina Casagrand on her personal blog "The Gasconader". Check out more of her insights there. 

Text and photos by Tina Casagrand

Ahoy! Results are in for Missouri River Relief‘s cleanup at St. Joseph, Missouri (you can find them here)  This was my third away-team cleanup as a crew member. My first experience with the group was back in 2009, and despite attending dozens of events as a regular volunteer, it’s impossible to know just how much work goes into preparing for these things.

First, there’s the matter of time and location. Where’s a good boat ramp to conduct a cleanup, and where can we camp that’s reasonably close? At St. Joe, we lucked out with Remington Nature Center hosting us on its grounds, just a parking lot away from the boat docks. We cut driftwood behind the building and established a kitchen underneath it, pitched tents by Roy’s Creek, and built a campfire laughably close to the city’s riverside bike trail.

Sunrise on Roy’s Creek.
I wouldn’t mind unzipping my tent to this every day.
Photo by Tina Casagrand

And then there are logistics of the cleanup itself.

Since an aerial trash scout in 2011, it’s been a little easier to spot dump sites on maps. Even so, there’s a lot of foot work for crew members to find litter that’s washed in by recent floods. The day before a big cleanup, we scout for sites up and downstream, about five miles each way, on both sides of the river. A few people are elected dispatchers and assistants, a couple drive the boats, and the rest of the group piles in to check out the damage.

The river was low that week, meaning steep and muddy banks. Melanie, Jennifer, and I scrambled up them into the woods to find trash caught behind logs and foliage. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a lot to find, maybe because the river is so straight and swift in this channelized stretch by the city. I did, however, eat a bowlful of lamb’s quarter, watch several Common Yellowthroats flitting through the woods, and even scared up a Nighthawk! Seeing a Caprimulgid in the daytime was a first for me. Just one of the little serendipitous joys in getting outside.

Boots get muddy. Boats get muddy. Mud gets muddy.

That was Friday. A pretty easygoing day, although the scout does get tiring after a while. We assign jobs for the crew the night before, and get started really early the next day. Like, 6 a.m. breakfast early. On a Saturday! Then follows this volley of set-up, registration, driver meeting, volunteer orientation, safety talks and finally–rejoice!–getting out on the boats.

It’s a lot to do before noon, but we pull it off flawlessly, crew members filling in wherever they’re needed. Because turnout was fairly light this day, the drivers and first mates got to stay with their boatful of volunteers instead of leaving to get another group. That was awesome for me, as I got more alone time in nature, and was able to hang out with a totally precious gang of 7-year-old bicyclists. On the way back, when I ate an orange and tossed the peel in the stream, one of the kids looked totally disappointed. “Eli, what’s wrong?” He threw his palms in the air and said, “You’re littering!” in such a dismayed voice that I’m sure my response of, “don’t panic, it’s organic” would fail to redeem my sin.

After the cleanup, we give lunch to our volunteers, host and judge a trash contest, chill for a while, then peel out in the boats again to pick up the trash. Volunteers leave their bags, tires and other stuff on the shore. We pick it up in the afternoon in a streamlined fashion.

This, my friend, is a well-orchestrated daisy chain of trash.

John Brady is our premiere frontloader communicatuer.
Here, he’s telling the driver to smash down on this refrigerator.

I’m a little exhausted just writing about this. Which is ok, because feeling exhausted means you did a lot of hard work, eh? And what better frame of mind for a sunset walk on a trail by the river? This was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen, seriously. Even my fancy new iPhone (hey world, I finally upgraded!) couldn’t capture it’s glory, but here. I tried.



You can catch me at the next river cleanup at Leavenworth, Kansas, and Weston, Missouri the weekend of June 7. Seriously, come if you can (free boat ride and fuzzy feelings), and if you can’t, follow my Twitter and Instagram. (Yep, Instagram. That’s new for me. Give me something to follow!) I’ll bring you along for the ride.

Kansas City Missouri River Ed Events

Kansas City Missouri River Ed Events

“Day on the River”- Riverfront Park, KC, MO

“KC Watershed Festival”- Lakeside Nature Center, KC, MO

October 2-4^th, 2013

Staley High School:  14

Benjamin Banneker:  40

KC Watershed Festival:  160

MRR Crew:  11

Total Students & Teachers:  234

Service Learning Clean-ups:  6

Rivermiles Cleaned:  5 (Missouri River miles 360 – 365)

Total Tonnage:  .8 tons

Day on the River Presenters:

KC Parks & KC Wildlands - River Wildlife & Conservation, live reptiles & birds

US Army Corps of Engineers – Conservation Careers, MO River Recovery, live fish & turtles 

MRR - Know Your Big Muddy, Recycle Relay

   

 

 

KC Watershed Presentations:  Recycle Relay, Trash Boat, Enviro Scape

Sponsors:  “Day on the River” is supported by grants from US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mo. Dept. of Natural Resources and Mo. Dept. of Conservation. 

The Kansas City Watershed Festival hosted by the Little Blue River Watershed Assoc. and Healthy Rivers Partnership. 

Coordinators:  Day on the River:  Steve Schnarr, Dave & Fran Stous

                             KC Watershed Festival:  Larry O’Donnell, Vicki Richmond

“Day on the River” Trash Tally!

38 Bags of Trash

1 Big TV Screen

1 Chair Cushion

2 Plastic Pots

1 5-gal. Bucket

1 Turtle Sand Box

1Big Blue Packer

2 Tires

50 lbs Scrap Metal

50 ft. of Barge Rope

1 Humidifier Tank

1 Metal Sign

1 Message in a Bottle – Jar Joke

 

Tires:  .0175 tons

Trash:  .76 tons

Scrap Metal:  .025 tons

Total Tonnage:  .8 Tons  ~ (nearly 1 Ton!!!)

To view all photos from "Day on the River", please visit our Flickr album! 

Click here to view photos of the Kansas City Watershed Festival "Recycle Relay Race"  

KC River Clean-up Results 2013

Kansas City Missouri River Clean-up

La Benite Park, Kansas City, MO

October 5^th, 2013

  

Total Volunteers:  289

MRR Crew:  22

Boats:  12  (5 Missouri River Relief, 5 MDC, 1 Burns & Mac, 1 Private)

River Miles: 10 (Missouri River miles 347-357)

River Level: 10 ft on the Kansas City gage

Tires: 25 Tires (approx. .4 tons)

Landfill Tonnage:  3.2 tons

Scrap Metal:  approx. .07 tons

Total Tonnage:  3.7 Tons!

Names of River Teams:  Jesse Gochenour Memorial Fund, River Rats Troop 332, Spider Monkeys, Green Inks, Cargills, Frog Legs, Lena, Lipton TeaBags, GAP, Obnoxious Otters, River Hawks, SeaLife, Evil Bleeding Fish, William Christman, Brownies, Mark Twain, Sharks, 6 Rocks, Brownies 2, Rockhurst, Mohawks, Americorps, OWWC, No Names, Stewart, Awesomer Brownies 3, Black Sheep, Mo Miscreants, Meercats, Jason’s Fam

Trash Tally!!!!

174 Bags of Trash

11 Tires on the Rim

9 Tires w/o Rim

1 Jet Ski

3 Propane Tanks

1 Fire Extinguisher

3 Florescent Light Ballasts

1 Trash Dispenser

1 Hinged Pillow

1 Stroller

1 Cooler

4 Chunks O’ Styrofoam

10 5-gal. Plastic Buckets

5 Orange Traffic Barrels

2 55- gal. Plastic Barrels

1 Chair Frame

1 Camp Chair

1 Shower Rod

1 plastic sidewalk Ashtray

1 Rubber Hose

1 Car Bumper
1 Engine Cover

1 Gas Tank

2 Hubcaps

Plywood

1 Rubber Noodle

1 Plastic Slide

1 Ernie Doll (of Bert & Ernie)

1 Guitar Case

1 Soccer Ball

2 Basket Balls

½ of a Shopping Cart

1 Syringe

1 Chain Link Fence in pieces

Rebar

15 lb metal Counter Weight

10 ton Screw Shackle

1 7-ft Metal Culvert filled with Stryofoam 

1 Metal Chest

22 yards of Heavy Barge Line

1 Fishing Pole

1 Boat Locker

7 Tent Poles

1 Swimming Pool Liner, Cover & Straps

1 PVC Pipe

Construction Fencing

See all of the photos from the 2013 Kansas City Missouri River Clean-up HERE.  More results and the story of the clean-up on our webpage.

Return to Siouxland...

Siouxland Missouri River Clean-up

Sioux City, IA & South Sioux City, NE

May 7, 2011

text by Steve Schnarr; photos by Steve Schnarr, Dylan Lehrbaum, Melanie Cheney, Colin Doggett
Check out all our photos from the clean-up by clicking here. 
OR visit our full clean-up report here.

Marta, Sally & Desiree

We have a special relationship with the Siouxland area. With partners on both sides of the river coordinating local efforts and outreach, it’s become a  four-year tradition to clean-up the head of the channelized river.

This year, local coordination was shared by Sally Reinert, of Keep Northeast Nebraska Beautiful, and Desiree McCaslen who works in environmental monitoring at the wastewater treatment plant on the Iowa side. They decided this year to hold both boarding and disposal on the Nebraska side, switching locations between states each year. It worked great! An added bonus this year was both Desiree and Sally were able to hit the river to help clean up this year.

They also fed our crew. There’s no better way to get into our hearts than serving up great food!

The big story this year was the high water. The Siouxland area rarely sees water this high, and with the Gavin’s Point Dam scheduled to release up to 60,000 cfs of water through December, the river will be this high or higher for most of the year.

While many worried about the safety of running a cleanup at such levels, we found this to be a good time to hold a cleanup. More areas were accessible since steep, loose riprap banks were underwater. It was tough to find landing spots through the trees in some locations, but volunteers were able to cleanup areas likely to be flooded later. However, one of the dumps we’ve been working on for several years was completely submerged. We’ll get it eventually!

Siouxland Mudpuppies –
Desiree and her husband Josh have been cultivating a group of high school students into a force for cleanup of their hometown. We’ve worked with these hard working environmental stewards for several years. This year, it was an all girl crew and they were great!

Nebraska Game and Parks –
One of our favorite agencies to work with is NGPC biologists. These folks are very skilled operators, and their huge boats can haul over a dozen people and a LOT of trash. This year, Ken Hatten and Kirk Steffenson were on board (NGPC was also helping at the Yankton clean-up…good work guys!).

Ken Hatten, NGPC, loaded this boat himself, cuz he was "bored". photo by Dylan Lehrbaum.

We were kind of blown away by Ken – he worked with Cargill volunteers and worked side by side with them, bumping them to several different cleanup spots. Then, after lunch, he disappeared for a while as we were regathering forces for the trash haul. Just as we were getting ready to head out, he showed up with his boat full to the brim with trash – filled completely by himself.

Cargill
The Cargill GOSCNA and DSO plants were our main cash sponsors of this event, and have been for several years. Plant manager Brian Spencer has turned it into a great team-building event for employees and their families. Our crew member Liz Doubet was our liason to the group, and she was impressed at how great the families worked together. It’s what we know about cleanups – it creates a unique opportunity for families to experience real nature and service to the river together.




Sioux Crew
A great mix of folks from both states helped run this event, from registration to safety to dispatch. Our crew members tried to teach how and why we do what we do, and this great crew of people made it happen. Thanks Sioux Crew!!!!

River Relief Crew
Our crew is made up of volunteers, mostly from Columbia and Kansas City, that travel all over the place making clean-ups happen. This time, we had one event in Omaha on April 30, then two events the following weekend in Yankton and Siouxland. Our “deep bench” of excellent crew volunteers has grown to the point where only three crewmembers had to help both weekends. This makes us able to accomplish so much more. Our small staff would really struggle without the dedication of this amazing and talented crew. 

Trash Treasures
Check out the Trash Tally for some of the interesting finds from the clean-up. Of course the kilo of cocaine made the news, but there were some other interesting things. The Coast Guard Auxilliary (our partners for four years) pulled in an abandoned Jet Ski they’d been trying to get for several years. The high water made it easier to access.



The trash contest brought some great things to shore – the front end and gas tank from a motorcycle (Liz Doubet brought it home to make a bird house out of the tank) – a complete exercise machine – a typewriter (remember those?) – a Chinese flag – a wedding garter (!) – and a six-disc CD changer (with speakers). The "Most Unusual Find" went to a dog collar (complete with dog skeleton...ugh!). I never cease to be befuddled by the weird stuff people find on the river banks.

People + Action = Community Enhancement
Synergy is a welcome addition to any clean-up event. This time we teamed up with the PACE event. While some PACE groups worked on planting and beautifying Scenic Park, we worked on beautifying the river. Then we all got together for lunch and a really great Trash Contest. Good stuff!

Cool new trash bags
We were excited to try out the trash bags donated by Keep Iowa Beautiful. Bright orange (easy to see), biodegradable and tough – they worked perfectly. We’ll be finding out the source for these great bags and sharing it here. We need tough bags for river clean-ups – they get dragged through the woods and sometimes filled with sharp objects. We’ve seen lesser bags get shredded to pieces. The most exciting thing was that these bags are biodegradable – made of plant byproducts they don’t add to our consumption of plastic…the most common item we find on cleanups. Perfect!

This cleanup was a great example of how smaller groups of volunteers can make for a high quality event and still clean up a lot of trash. Many of our boats were able to stick with their volunteer groups, which makes it easier to shuttle to new locations when they get one place cleaned up. And our great crewmembers get a chance to work hand-in-hand with folks. It builds the energy and amazing things get accomplished. With only 97 volunteers, we removed 3.6 tons of trash! Great work everyone!

Urban camping
Most places we do cleanups, we find a riverside camp to base out of for the weekend. This time, Scenic Park gave us their whole “Eco-Cabin” complex for free. The staff was amazing and helpful, donating ice and firewood to us all weekend.

These cabins are something else. They are collaborative projects by college architecture students. One looks like a rusty metal cube with no entrance. But, you tug on a handle and suddenly one wall slides to the side, creating an lighted entryway. The top bunk is only accessible by climbing one of the walls. Awesome!

Cabin 1 has a wall that gets cranked up, creating an overhang and a perfect space for our kitchen. A beautiful rock fireplace area located on the point by the river was our gathering place. Perfect. Everyone commented on how strange it is to literally camp in the middle of a city. Trains, interstate traffic and the buzz of the city was ever present. The smell of the rendering plant on the Iowa side would drift over and make us gag. But then a flock of geese would fly overhead and the sun would set beautifully over the bridge. Such a great experience!



Thanks to all volunteers, sponsors and great partners that made this event happen. We know we’ll be returning to Siouxland for years to come.

The River as Muse

River Excursion with Shawnee Mission East & North and St. Theresa's Academy art students

Kaw Point Park to Riverfront Park - Kansas City

April 23, 2011

text by Vicki Richmond, photos by Sarah Cook and Katie Crow

Boat trips are a terrific way to get folks immersed in the Big Muddy.  Hundreds of people experience the Missouri River this way each year, through River Relief’s field trips.

Way back in January’s chill, I received a note from Adam Finkelston, Shawnee Mission East Visual Arts Dept. instructor and self proclaimed photography geek.  He wanted to take students out on the river to inspire them to create art, and to view their community in a unique way.  We’d be hosting aspiring artists, students who would be nominated and chosen by their teachers, and we’d spend the day traveling by boat.  The outcome of the day would be an art show, held at a gallery this fall that would showcase the student’s work.

April 23 was a good day for a boat ride.  Rainy weather gave way to clouds as MRR crew met at Kaw Point to splash boats in preparation for taking a unique group out for a day on the river.  Students began arriving armed with cameras, sketch pads, notebooks and bags for collecting objects.  Parents stood by watching as their kids were fitted into life jackets, given a brief safety talk and boarded the boats.

photo by Sarah Cook, Shawnee Mission East

The boats left the ramp on the Kaw (or Kansas River) and slowly made their way to the confluence with the Missouri.  The bigger river was quite obviously running higher than the gentler Kaw; our boats were pushed to the south shore as the mighty Missouri currents push towards St. Louis. 

We traveled the stretch between Kaw Point and the Main Street Pedestrian Walkway, taking time to notice the effects of our urban amenities.  Bridges, a scrap metal yard, a wastewater treatment plant, armored stream banks and levee walls are juxtaposed with the original limestone ledge that allowed steamboats to unload cargo for transport to the Westport Trading Post.  Cameras clicked as we powered past the Kansas City skyline.

Berkley Park, once the Kansas City Municipal Landfill, illustrates what can be done with land that isn’t suitable for building.  Our boats pulled into shore so that students could walk the recently created USB Bridge underpass, investigate the Wharfmaster building and see the leftover round pads where grain bins once stood.  Old brick in the power plant and newly planted native prairie and wetlands work together to combine the old and new.

photo by Katie Crow, St. Theresa's Academy

Back to the boats, and a migration to Riverfront Park Boat ramp allowed students to get a duck’s eye view of progress. The Paseo Bridge is being taken down in pieces to make way for the newly opened Kit Bond Bridge that connects Kansas City with her northern neighbors.  Large cranes, working barges and a tug boat offered fodder for sketch books and cameras.


Pulling into Riverfront Park, we were greeted by the fisherfolk and morel hunters who have come to know our boats and crew.  We disembarked and headed just downstream of the ramp to a high sand bar and large pile of drift wood for lunch.  A small fire was lighted to warm marshmallows for tasty deserts.  Students ate lunch and headed off to hike in the woods and explore the flood plain.  Our crew relaxed while enjoying the student’s comments. 

A goose was gently persuaded to leave her nest so that students could see the eggs nestled in warm down.  The hubbub of lunch quickly became a deserted scene of jackets, backpacks and lunch bags as students explored the woods and hiked downriver.

photo by Katie Crow

While enjoying lunch, the tugboat Mary Lynn came through, offering everyone a chance to see commerce at work along the Big Muddy.  Quickly employed cameras captured the turbulent water as crew raced to the boats to secure them.  A small gathering of onlookers enjoyed looking over our vessels; it is a rare occasion when our boats don’t cause a stir.  Having 28 red life-jacketed people made the scene even more inviting, and new friends were made in the assembled group.


All too quickly we loaded the boats again for the return trip upriver.  Several stops were made for students to capture scenes and again we beached the boats, this time at the base of the scrap metal  yard.  Students made their way up the banks to investigate the area , and returned with pockets bulging with scraps of metal destined to become sculptural elements.  A sign, a saw blade and a bag of metal disks joined the drift wood, beaver chewed willow poles and refrigerator door already on board.

We returned to Kaw Point and to a group of waiting parents, cheering and clapping as the boats gently touched shore.  Students unloaded sketchbooks and backpacks with wide grins.  The river made new friends, and the artists left with new inspiration.  The fall will bring us full circle, when the art created from the day is shown. 

photo by Katie Crow

We could not do projects like these without support!  A  big, muddy thanks to:

• Adam Finkelston, Shawnee Mission East Visual Arts Department   www.smsd.org/schools/smeast

• Paul Dorrell, Leopold Gallery   www.leopoldgallery.com

• Students and Parents from Shawnee Mission East, Shawnee Mission North and St. Theresa’s High Schools

•  Missouri River Relief Crew Members:   Vicki and Michael Richmond, Larry O’Donnell, Bill Fessler and Layla the Dog

Siouxland Trash Tally!

Siouxland Missouri River Clean-up
Scenic Park Boatramp, S. Sioux City, NE
May 7th, 2011

photos by Dylan Lehrbaum, Donna Walter & Colin Doggett

For more results, including links to photos, media, etc, go to:
http://www.riverrelief.org/event/siouxland-missouri-river-clean-up-2011/

Total Volunteers:  97
MRR Crew:  17
Sioux Crew: 13
Boats:  6  (3 Missouri River Relief, 2 Nebraska Game & Parks, 1 U.S. Coast Guard
Auxiliary)
River Miles: 5
River Level: 23.7 ft
Tires: 33 (.56 tons)
Landfill Tonnage:  2.4 tons
Scrap Metal:  .7 tons
Total Tonnage: 3.6 tons

Groups & Agencies Involved:  Missouri River Relief, Missouri American Water, Keep Northeast Nebraska Beautiful, Nebraska Game & Parks, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, Americorps State, Feed Energy, Dakota City Clover Kids, Cargill Inc. - GOSCNA and DSO, Siouxland Mudpuppies, Scenic Park, City of South Sioux City, South Sioux City YMCA

Names of River Teams:  The Dog Pound, The Lagging Turtles, Clover Kids, Feed Energy, Mudpuppies, The Trash Picker-uppers

Trash Tally!!!!

124 Bags of Trash
33 Car & Truck Tires
3 Bicycle Tires
1 Tire Rim
6 Chunks O’ Styrofoam
1 Cooler
6 5-gallon Plastic Buckets
1 with Mystery Fluid
3 5-gallon Metal Buckets
1 55-gallon Plastic Barrel
8 rusty cans of Paint
1 Gas Can
1 guts of a Washing Machine
1 Chest Freezer
1 Metal Fire Grate
1 Lawn Mower Deck
3 Mattresses
5 Boxsprings
2 Chairs
1 yellow Toilet Tank & Lid
1 Vacuum Cleaner
1 Chinese Flag
3 Mufflers
1 Ford Grill
1 Buick Grill
1 Dodge Tail Gate
2 Gas Tanks
1 Car Battery
2 Train Parts
1 Motorcycle Cylinder Head & Jugs, Banana Seat, Fender, Front Forks, and Wheel
1 Tricycle

1 wrecked Kawasaki Jet Ski
2 pieces of Carpet
1 Concrete Block
1 Metal Siding
1 Heavy Duty Rope
1 PVC Pipe
2 Wire Fences
1 piece of Corrugated Metal
2 pieces of Rebar
1 Target Stand for shooting
1 Lead Pipe w/ Channel Iron
2 ½ ft Saw Blade Rotary
28 ft of Metal Cable
2 TVs
1 Typewriter
1 RCA 6-disk changer Stereo with 2 Speakers
1 Tarp
1 Window Shade
1 Milk Crate made into a bike basket
1 KB Transportation Sign
1 Squeegee Top
1 Highway Merge Sign
1 Picture Frame
1 Exercise Machine
1 pair of Blue Jeans
1 Golf Club Driver
1 CD
1 UNO Card
1 Wedding Garter
1 Blond Wig
1 Kilo of Cocaine wrapped in duct tape -turned into police
1 Ring Buoy Life Preserver
1 Dog Collar w/ complete dog skeleton & rabies tag
1 Feather in a Bottle

Karl's Big River Adventure

St. Joseph Missouri River Clean-up

French Bottom River Access & Boat Dock, St. Joseph, MO - Rivermile 450
October 16, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Vicki Richmond and Kris Lancaster (EPA)
For more clean-up info and results, click here

At our St. Joseph clean-up, we had a special visitor. Karl Brooks, the Regional Administrator for Region 7 of the US Environmental Protection Agency came for lunch and to help us out with the trash haul (by the way, if you click that EPA link above and scroll down, you can see their news release on the clean-up).

The trash haul is one of the most rewarding parts of the day. You get a good boat ride through the whole reach of the clean-up and get to see all the piles of trash volunteers collected throughout the morning. Then you pick those piles up and load 'em into a boat. When Karl told our director, Jeff Barrow, that he wanted to help at a clean-up, Jeff suggested he come for the trash haul.

Karl was a hard worker (yeah, it looks like he's lounging in this photo...but a big pile of trash bags is a great place to recline in between hitting trash sites!). And a really pleasant part of the crew. This gave our board president Dave Stous a chance to explain what Missouri River Relief does for the river and the citizens that live along it. Good stuff!

Karl immediately "got it". Although he'd lived for many years in Lawrence, KS, on the banks of the Kaw River, he'd never been on the Mighty Missouri before. "I can't tell you how many times I've driven over this river on bridges," he said, echoing the response we hear from so many volunteers. "But getting out on it in one of these boats is completely different. You can feel the power of this amazing river, and feel that it's actually alive."

That's such a big part of what we do - exposing people to the world class resource we have right under our noses in a way that is so personal, so hand-on that it changes people.

It was an honor to show the Big Muddy to Karl Brooks and the EPA crew.

Speaking of the EPA crew, EPA biologist Deanna Collier led a group of EPA boat operators that morning, hauling volunteers out on the river. They did a wonderful job, and we'd be sunk without the help of river experienced pilots like EPA, MDC, USFWS and more.

By the way, Karl wanted us to pass on his appreciation to all of you who have given up your Saturday mornings and more to clean-up our Big Muddy Missouri River.

So Thanks!

St. Joe Trash Tally!

St. Joseph Missouri River Clean-up

French Bottoms River Access & Boat Dock, St. Joseph, MO - Rivermile 150
October 16, 2010
(for more info & links about this clean-up, click here)

• Total Volunteers: 278
• MRR Crew: 21
• Boats: 13 boats (3 Missouri River Relief, 5 Missouri Department of Conservation, 2 EPA, 3 local boaters)
• River miles: 12 rivermiles
• River Level: 14.7 feet (St. Joseph gage)
  
• Landfill Tons: 3 tons
  
• Scrap Metal: 1.3 tons
  
• Tires: 117 tires (2.1 tons)
• Total Tonnage: 6.4 tons
  

Trash Tally!
289 bags of trash
117 tires
Countless plastic bottles and little pieces of Styrofoam
1 large innertube
6 plastic milk crates
11 large chunks of Styrofoam
7 chunks of plastic
1 cooler
8 5-gallon plastic buckets
2 cans of paint
2 5-gallon metal buckets
2 55-gallon metal drums
4 55-gallon plastic barrels
1 control panel from a dredge
1 ringer washer
Complete game of washers
3 fire extingishers
1 message in a bottle
1 duck decoy
1 planter made from a tire
1 plastic leg from a doll
1 lawn troll
Small refrigerator
1 brand new pair of boots
1 pair of boots a little worse for the wear…
1 silk scarf
1 stained glass cube
1 framed dolphin print
1 hand saw
1 electric shaver
1 very large propane tank
1 small propane tank
1 helium tank
1 toaster
Several computers and computer parts
1 microwave
1 screen door frame
1 set of venetian blinds
1 queen-size box-spring mattress

11 chairs
1 semi-truck mudflap
1 large Tupperware container
1 small TV
1 big-screen TV
11-foot hydraulic coupling hose
1 car bumper
1 car seat bench
1 car seat
1 truck bed liner
1 hide-a-bed frame
1 railroad angle bar
1 CCA wood beam
1 push broom
1 piece of chainlink fence
5 bags of moldy clothing
1 toy playhouse
1 toy parking garage
1 desk and the entire contents of a person’s office, including file cabinet, electronic goods, computer manuals, briefcase, a Bible and much, much more dumped along the Riverfront trail and covered with a tarp
5 blankets

1 record
25 pieces of assorted scrap metal
1 green buoy
1 rebar grate
1 metal ironing board
1 metal grill
1 metal tray
1 very large big metal sign
1 computer monitor
1 garden hose
5 torn, moldy tarps, one with the remains of an unidentifiable animal
Parts of 5 tents
20 tent poles
1 foam cushion
1 rake
1 kitchen sink
1 pool lining
1 plastic wash sink