Did you know the Catwaba Riversweep is the largest one-day river cleanup in the Southeast?! Keeping our river clean is the core of our mission with the Stowe Regional Water Resource Recovery Facility, so our Community Engagement Manager Krystal Harwick grabbed a kayak and joined the fun. Launching off from the Trailrace Marina in Mount Holly, Krystal collected more than 100 pounds of trash and the “prize-winning” tire from the island between the Stowe Site and Mount Holly Pump Station.
The Catawba Riversweep is organized by the Catawba-Wateree Water Management Group, who provided this update following this year’s event:
Trash pollution is a rampant issue for the Catawba-Wateree River Basin and causes continuous problems for our drinking water supply, recreational activities, flora and fauna, and the overall health of the ecosystem of our shared waterways. From motorboats to wading in creeks, from dragging 200-pound dock floats behind boats to digging out tires and shopping carts while thigh deep in the mud of the river, over 1,200 volunteers put in a lot of hard work that day and it paid off! Collectively we pulled 46,745.05 lbs. of trash out of our shared waterways! This includes, 220 tires, over 1,600 bags of trash, and a lot of crazy items such as, shopping carts, car seats, metal objects, dock floats, grills, and even a TV!
Learn more and volunteer next year at CatawbaRiversweep.org.