By Andy Furman
NKyTribune reporter
Richard Harrison said his crew did their part – and the results are there to prove it. Harrison is the Executive Director and Chief Engineer for ORSANCO – the water pollution control agency for the Ohio River and its tributaries.
And although the Ohio River is 981 miles long – and the source for drinking water for over five million people – Harrison helped 49 total volunteers clean-up eight miles of the shoreline; not only in Northern Kentucky, but Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Cincinnati last Saturday.
“Our crew totaled 2,100 pounds of trash removed from the banks of the Ohio River,” Harrison told the Northern Kentucky Tribune.
He said the City of Covington was quite helpful with the logistics for their event.
“The Cincinnati Rotary Club,” he said, “had 12 volunteers, and picked up 17 bags of trash.”
The event was more of a party-type atmosphere he says.
“We started at the Pete Rose Pier in Covington; and refreshments and donuts were available after the event at noon.”
Certainly, the local crew left no mess.
Cleanup supplies were provided; and the event was in conjunction with orsanco.org/river-sweep 2024, Harrison said.
The Ohio River supports over 160 species of fish, 100 species of mussels and numerous other species – birds, macroinvertebrates. And, it serves as transportation for over 184 million tons of cargo, annually.
“We’re an interstate agency, and we represent the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and the federal government,” Sarah Segars, Public Information & Outreach Coordinator for ORSANCO, told the Northern Kentucky Tribune recently.
She said ORSANCO conducts a bi-monthly water quality program that cleans metals and looks for harmful algal blooms (HABs).
“But it’s the Ohio River Sweep that really gets people involved” she says. “It’s a volunteer cleanup from March 1st-October 31st, throughout six-member states.”
In short, the program aims to clean the shorelines of the Ohio River and any of its tributaries within the Ohio River Basin.
Last year, that Ohio River Sweep saw 4,596 total volunteers, with 121 events across six states, according to ORSANCO reports.
“Those volunteers removed 85.01 tons of trash and collected 902 tires removed,” Segars said. “With waste on the river, we’re losing a great treasure.”
The most common pieces of debris, according to the City of Covington – anything that floats: Styrofoam, smokeless tobacco cans, cigar filters, soccer balls, buckets, and the omnipresent plastic bottles.
Yet, over the years volunteers have found or dug out a wide variety of things: a wheelchair tire, a weight attached to a chain, baby dolls, a shopping cart, a basketball rim. televisions and a Big Wheel.
Since 1948, ORSANCO and its member states have cooperated to improve water quality in the Ohio River Basin, ensuring the river can be used for drinking, industrial supplies, and recreational porpoises – and can support a healthy and diverse aquatic community.
ORSANCO operates monitoring programs to check for pollutants ands toxins that may interfere with specific uses of the river.
Harrison called Saturday’s event a success – especially with the neighboring cities getting involved. He hinted the event may go to twice-a-year sometime in the future.
That may depend, of course, on the amount of litter.