PA River Clean Up Uncovers Tons of Garbage...and the Kitchen Sink
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October 12, 2009
PITTSBURGH - Items you'd expect to find in a landfill have, for years, been making their home in and around a stretch of Pennsylvania's Allegheny River. Now, thanks to a big effort by a lot of people, they're not there anymore. Piper Lindell, who owns Allegheny Outfitters, organized a five-day clean-up along 30 miles of the Allegheny with the help of 300 volunteers. Some of what they found defies explanation: the back end of a Plymouth sedan, two airplane seats, a huge, blinking arrow sign, and literally tons more.
"Eighteen mattresses or box springs, 13 televisions, eight water heaters, six sinks, four refrigerators, two clothes dryers, five kitchen stoves."
Getting objects the size of a refrigerator out of a river isn't easy. Lindell says it was a combination water and land effort that started with canoe patrols.
"Canoers would flag it and then jet boats would just be running up and down the river all day long, looking for these flags. I mean it was people canoeing, walking the banks, jet boat support, quite an effort."
Lindell says while volunteers were alarmed at some of the things they found, their aim was to keep the positive aspect of the clean-up in mind over the five days.
"You can get down pretty quick in a project like this if you look at it as, you know, 'Why are folks doing this?' Instead, we decided to look at it as, 'Wow, look at what we're accomplishing and look at the change we're making.'"
The clean-up was done under the guidance of the U.S. Forest Service. Parts of the Allegheny River have been found to contain high levels of mercury, arsenic and selenium. Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection says further tests are needed to pinpoint the sources of those harmful metals.
For a rundown of the cleanup and the kinds of items found, visit
www.alleghenyrivercleanup.com