Stories from Washington

Washington River Festival and Missouri River Clean-up

Rennick Riverfront Park, Washington, MO
April 17, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Vicki Richmond, Melanie Cheney, Tom Ball

(for more photos, stories, links etc, see our Washington event webpage. )

Man, did we have a good time in Washington.

In fact, there was so much going on, most of us only got a glimpse at a few pieces of the whole. Here’s a few stories that happened that people have passed along to me.

Drift Piles and Willow Thickets and Box Dikes
It’s been several years of high water along the Lower Missouri River. Much of the trash along the river has been pushed up high in the floodplain. The Washington reach of the river is really productive agricultural land with little public land. So a lot of the trash volunteers recovered was from piles of driftwood pushed together by flooding eddies.

The river levels had dropped a lot in the previous week, as low as it’s been in months. The low willow thickets that gather trash were actually locked behind exposed rock dikes that had been underwater just a week before. We call these “box dikes” because the rock walls actually box the areas off from our clumsy motorboats. This all meant a lot of work for the volunteers that were bagging up trash and hauling it to where our trash boats could pick them up. Or rolling refrigerators or tires. These were a tough bunch of volunteers!

The Augusta Bottoms Scour Hole
Last time we went to Washington in 2008, a group of Augusta Bottoms residents pointed out some trash in the series of “blew holes” along August Bottoms Rd. Unfortunately, our clean-up that day was cancelled because of a flooding Missouri River and we didn’t have enough volunteers to pull it off.

This time, Scot Heidbrink and Bernie Arnold led a team of Kohl’s employees and locals to tackle the site. Once they started, they found they couldn’t stop. What looked like some recent dumping turned out to be about 25 tires and two trailer-loads of junk illegally dumped along the road.

This was one of several scour holes dug out in the 1993 and 1995 floods. Still popular fishing holes, they are home to migrating flocks of waterfowl and are crammed with turtles. It felt good to get them cleaned out! Hopefully we can come back when the water is really low!

Colter’s Clean-up by Canoe
The Wyman Center contacted us several months ago. Jason Rose, the Wyman Program Manager, was entering the Missouri River 340, a canoe race we are involved in, and checked out our website. He was intrigued and offered the Wyman’s canoe fleet for a clean-up in the area. We chose the Washington clean-up for our trial run.

The group met at the Washington ramp early and headed up to Colter’s Landing, where the Wyman Fleet was waiting. Big Muddy Adventures’ Betsy Tribble and Mike Clark arrived with the Clipper Canoe – a massive 10-person canoe just begging to haul trash. Everyone headed downstream on the Boeff Creek gathering trash as they went. The coolest thing they found wouldn’t fit in a canoe - our trash boat had to pick it up later: a really nice picnic table buried in a sandbank. We took it to our riverside cabin the next day!

The mouth was the first stop, and several trashy spots along the way. Luckily, the Washington Boat Club Commodore Fred Hartbank and a couple of his buddies grabbed lunches and headed up to meet the paddlers for lunch around 1 p.m.. Then the canoe clean-up crew had the energy to finish ‘er off!

River Celebration!
Last time we attempted a clean-up in Washington, Mike Smith volunteered to help coordinate it. Then his good friend, Gloria Attoun Bauermeister offered to organize a river festival in conjunction with the clean-up. That was 2008…the clean-up ended up flooded out, but the festival went on as planned.

This year it was even bigger and better. With music from local river lovers, educational booths on a wide variety of river and nature-related topics, art and good food – it was a true celebration of the river that remains the center of life in Washington.

The World Bird Sanctuary kicked it all off with their popular display of rehabilitated raptors from around the world. The whole festival wrapped up with an old-timey dance, complete with a dance caller. In the meantime, a lot of families got to get involved in hands-on art projects, a bird walk with Bill Davit, and a whole lot of learning about local organizations dedicated to history, restoration, care of our resources and more.

Kohl’s and Washington Middle School
Two of our largest groups were from the Washington Kohl’s store and the Washington Middle School Environmental Club. Because of a great national program through Kohl’s, the two groups teamed up to work both on the river and the Augusta Bottoms site.
The bonus: Kohl’s will be donating $1,500 to the Environmental Club! According to Club faculty sponsor Michael Batsie, the club will use the funds to purchase new recycling bins for the school, as well as t-shirts and native plant training for the environmental club. An absolute win-win for everyone!

Nona
We were pleased that our crew was invited back to Michael and Gloria’s little piece of paradise in the Augusta Bottoms. The former site of a little railroad town called Nona, the old general store is now the studio and gallery for Michael Bauermeister’s amazing wooden sculptures. We set up our kitchen under the awning, camped in the yard around and enjoyed the beautiful spring evening after the clean-up. Many friends from Washington, Augusta and St. Louis joined us for an evening campfire and “pass the feather”, where everyone told a story about how the day went for them.

Many thanks to the many cooks who kept us fed all weekend. It was truly a group effort!

We were kept company all weekend by several barred owls. Josh got this picture of one of them!

Washington Trash Tally!!!

Washington River Festival and Missouri River Clean-up
Rennick Riverfront Park, Washington, MO
April 17, 2010

* Total Volunteers: 218
* MRR Crew: 36
* Boats: 7 (3 Missouri River Relief, 3 Missouri Department of Conservation, 1 Washington Boat Club) + 10 canoes (8 Wyman Center, 1 Big Muddy Adventures, 1 private)
* River Miles: 15 (10 by MRR boats, 5 by Canoes)
* River Level: 11 ft (Washington gage)
* Landfill Tons: 2.84 tons
* Scrap Metal: 3.9 tons
* Recyclables: .38 tons (750 lbs of plastic recycled into fence posts)
* Tires: 84
* Total Tonnage: 8.42 tons
* Groups Involved: Kohls Store 1098, Washington Middle School Environmental Club, Lindbergh High School Anatomy Class, Wyman Center, Big Muddy Adventures, Washington Boat Club, Sustain Mizzou
* Stream Teams: 1875, 3988, 2300, 3550, 3553, 2793, 3762, the mighty 211, 1857, 1857, 3419, 2991, 4123, 3651
* Names of River Teams: Alta, Awesome Group, Vacuum Cleaners, River Oysters, Teenage Ninja Turtles, Tree Huggers, the Flying Penguins, River Dolphins, Kresse, The First Team, The Geralds, Team Awesome, The River Rats, River Bi***es, The Mushrooms, Big Nasty, The Knights

Trash Tally!
A partial list of items recovered from the Missouri River by volunteers. Our most common items are plastic bottles and bits of styrofoam.
175 large Stream Team bags of trash
84 Tires
7 Refrigerators
1 Washing Machine
1 Large Ice Chest
2 Propane tanks
7 large Chunks o’ Styrofoam (one with a tree growing out of it)
3 Coolers
8 five gallon Plastic Buckets
6 Plastic Tubs
3 five gallon Metal Buckets
6 ½ 55-gallon Metal Drums
1 35-gallon Plastic Barrel
2 Plastic Coffee Pot
4 Boxsprings
1 Couch Frame
1 Bench Seat
4 Metal Chair Frames
4 Plastic Chairs
1 Bed Frame
1 Stove Top in rusted parts
1 6” Plastic Tube
1 Yard Sprayer
1 Light Fixture
1 Porcelain Toilet (in pieces)
1 Car Bumper
1 Car Rim
1 Gas Tank
1 Break Rotor
3 pieces of Carpet
1 Road Cone
1 Toy Slide
1 Hula Hoop
1 Toy Stroller
1 Knee Board
4 sheets of Metal
4 Fence Posts
4” Cast Iron Pipe
2 ft Rail Road Truck
1 syrup coke tank
2 TVs
1 Bug Zapper
1 Computer Monitor
2 Stereos
2 Tarps
2 Wire Rolls
1 large Stop Sign on post
1 Picnic Table
1 Glass Chandelier
1 large antique Light Bulb in a hexagon shape
1 Electric Fireplace
1 Plastic Toy Horse
1 small bag of Poo
1 glass Clorox Bottle

So...where does all that trash go after you pick it up from the river?

Washington River Festival & Missouri River Clean-up
Rennick Riverfront Park, Washington, MO,
April 17, 2010

text by Steve Schnarr, photos by Vicki Richmond & Tom Ball

"So...where does all that trash go after you pick it up from the river?"

I would say that's about the fourth most common question that gets asked from most folks curious about river clean-ups. Good reason, too! An amazing amount of junk gets recovered from the river during these clean-ups and most people would like to know it' getting put to good use. It's tough, but we try to recycle as much as we can...and hope to keep getting better.

My answer to the question usually starts with "Well, that depends on the community we're working in..." And each disposal solution usually has its own story. Here's some from the Washington Clean-up...

River Trash to Art
In three years, volunteers have removed over 40 tons of junk from a very old dump on the Osage River near the Mari-Osa ramp. We’ve bemoaned the fact that all this interesting stuff just got scrapped, except the treasures volunteers took home with them. This year, the Washington River Festival gave us a chance to do something with it.

A month ago, I delivered a couple big trash cans full of select Mari-Osa trash (culled by Ruthie Moccia) to Joey Los, a metal sculptor from Hermann that is co-owner of Kunstlerhaus gallery. Joey has been working with the Greenway Network’s Stream Trash to Art program, donating her time and work to creating beautiful and interesting sculptures from trash found on stream clean-ups. She, and several other artists offered to set up shop at the festival with welding equipment to make art from our Mari-Osa trash, and anything interesting that came off the river during our Washington clean-up.

Larry Pogue, whose impressive gallery is located on Front St just across the train-tracks from the Washington boat ramp, cranked out unbelievable standing sculptures of fish and flowers. Patrick McCarty worked with the Waggoner boys from Greenway Network to make creations using an old-style blacksmith oven.

Then, they donated all of these works to an auction raising money to help pay for the clean-up. Jean Ponzi from KDHX 88.1 was the auctioneer, and with the generous bids of festival goers, everyone raised over $1,200 for Missouri River Relief! Thanks to all of you for your creativity, generosity and hard work!

River Trash to Timber
The most common material we find on clean-ups is plastic. Plastic bottles, coolers, oil and antifreeze jugs, toys, plant pots, playground equipment, balls. Plastic generally floats pretty well, moves easily down streams during high water and gets deposited in drifts along the floodplain of the Missouri River.

River-ravaged plastic is often either full of mud and sand or coated in it. Most recyclers don’t want to deal with it. The sediment dulls their grinding blades, and contaminates the final product. It would be cool if we had our own grinder and some kind of washing system (using biodegradable cleaners and using little water), but we don’t. So if a recycler is willing to take the stuff, they usually have to re-sort the load to get only the plastic they want.

So far, we’ve worked with Civic Recycling in mid-Missouri and Coca-Cola Enterprises in Kansas City to recycle river plastic. Our friend Billy Froeschner, from Sustain Mizzou, told us about his friend, Gary Ryan, who owns Ryan Enterprises and turns a variety of plastics into fence posts and landscape timbers. Billy offered to bring his gooseneck horse trailer to Washington to haul away the plastic, and he even set up the recycling station.

The frantic sorting scene drew a lot of spectators from the River Festival – and some looks of amazement at what was actually in those blue bags coming off the river. Well, all that hard work recovered an estimated 750 pound of plastic - half of that horse trailer full!

Heavy Lifting
Just getting the trash off the boats and where it needs to be is a big task, best handled by a front-end loader or skid steer. Randy Thiemann from the Washington Parks and Rec. Dept. gave his Saturday up to hauling trash from the boats to the recycling station or the metal truck. He rolled up just as the first mud-filled refrigerator came up in a boat and we were scratching our heads on where to put it. Right up to the end, where he blew a hydraulic line on the second to last boat load of junk, he worked that ramp hard. The Parks Dept. also paid for the landfill dumpster supplied by Beck Disposal from St. Louis.

Tires are always the problem…
We had trouble finding someone to haul tires to a recycler for this event. Finally, the week before the event, our crewmember Bernie Arnold from Arnold, MO, offered to do the hauling for us with his big, walled trailer. He bought the trailer to help get rid of the massive numbers of tires that Stream Team 211 finds on the Meremec River, and here he was jumping out of his watershed to help us out in a pinch. The 85 tires recovered went to Tire Shredders Unlimited in High Ridge, MO, which creates a rubber “crumb” that is used in playgrounds, horse arenas and as an additive to coal to burn hotter and cleaner creating electricity.

Scrap Metal
This stuff is actually worth money! Sometimes, we make quite a lot of cash from the scrap metal. Other times, it’s much easier to let a local scrapper to pull up a trailer or dump truck and let them take it away. This time, Franklin Co. Recycling brought a dump truck, and we filled it to the brim - 3.9 tons! There’s a lot usable metal you can get from 15 miles of river!

Colter's Landing to Washington - Clean-up By Canoe

Special Announcement -

During the April 17 Washington, MO, Clean-up and River Festival, we are adding a limited "Clean-up By Canoe".

Colter's to Washington Clean-up by Canoe

The Wyman Center will be bringing 16 canoes to the clean-up (seating 32 volunteers). This flotilla will be putting in at Colter's Landing and paddling downstream (approx. 10 miles) to Washington. They'll stop at certain trashy spots along the way to gather up trash and leave it on the banks for the trash boats to pick up. Space is limited, and we ask that only experienced Missouri River paddlers join the group. First come, first served. Please pre-register by contacting Steve at 573.443.0292 or steve@riverrelief.org.

The Clean-up by Canoe flotilla will be meeting at the Washington Boat Ramp at 8:00 a.m. They'll be shuttled to Colter's Landing and put in the water by 8:45. We suggest that you bring some snacks and a reusable water bottle. We won't get back to Washington until 1:00 or so, but we'll have lunch for you there. Your vehicle will also be there! We hope you'll stick around for the river festival!

If the river is above 14.5 feet on the Washington gage, we will not be putting people on the river in canoes. As of today, it is predicted to be lower than that.

For more details on the April 17 event, see our event webpage: http://www.riverrelief.org/event/washington-river-festival-clean-up-2010/