CRWA in the NewsTons
of trash removed in a cleanup of Charles River
John Connor has helped clean up the Charles River in Waltham every spring for more than a decade, but even a veteran comes across surprises. This year, it was four car batteries left to leak along the river's edge near Moody Street. ''I never thought anybody would be that callous," the retired merchant marine officer said. ''A supermarket cart you can half understand, but this was awful." More than 1,600 volunteers like Connor gathered last Saturday to clean up the river, the biggest turnout in the seven years the Charles River Watershed Association has conducted the annual event. Individuals and groups staked out sites along the 80 miles of river shoreline stretching from Milford to Boston. Their mission was simple: to clean up other people's messes. Their cigarette butts, used Dunkin' Donuts cups, and fast-food wrappers. Their old appliances, car parts, and bicycles. Even rusted scaffolding. Rebecca Scibek, who organized the cleanup, estimated that volunteers removed 30 tons of trash this year, about 8 tons more than last year. ''Once you start looking for it, you realize how much stuff is there," Scibek said. ''We found five TVs dumped right at the [state-owned] swimming pool in Waltham." There are always surprises. Milford volunteers reported finding a refrigerator and a long stretch of picket fence. Wellesley middle school students removed heaps of trash -- mostly food and drink containers -- from a Route 128 embankment in Newton. They also found a Route 128 highway sign left on the side of the road. Even Weston showed an unseemly side. Student volunteers from the Cambridge School reported finding lacy thong underwear near Riverside Park. They also found an abandoned golf cart. They collected 10 garbage bags of debris. Volunteers in Bellingham could only guess how a set of multicolored stage lights found its way to the river's edge there. Bellingham organizer Bonnie Frechette said her group of four volunteers from Whole Foods hauled it out of the woods near the river's shore, as well as a bed frame, some campaign signs, and a pair of cross-country skis. Volunteers never know what they will find, she said. |