More than 2 tons of trash pulled from river

NEWARK - A countywide effort early in September, led by volunteers, managed to remove more than two tons of garbage from 26 miles of the Licking River in just one day.

This year's Licking County River Round Up had more volunteers, covered more ground and managed to remove more trash than previous years, according to the Licking County Health Department.

"This year's round up was super successful. We had over 320 volunteers, which is a pretty decent number to cover many of the waterways connected to the Licking River in Licking County," said Denise Natoli Brooks, the Licking County Soil and Water Conservation District District program administrator and environmental education specialist.

"The effort has grown every year so we're planning on expanding our efforts even further in 2017," she said.

More than 400 tires were pulled from branches of the Licking River across the county, at least 100 more tires than the group collected in 2015.

For Vaughn Klingler, a community representative on the round up committee, tires weren't the most unusual items found in the river.

"It's amazing that people think of the river as a reliable way to dispose of garbage. We've pulled stoves, washing machines and even TVs on top of the tires we find," he said. "It's important that we keep that water clean because like most counties, the river is a source for drinking water for many cities and villages."

Klingler said he thinks everyone should be involved with the cleanup, but he understands that might not work for everyone.

"We get a lot of help each year, more and more every time we come out. It's incredible that we can cover more than 20 miles in one day," he said. "If we had more help, we could cover even more ground."

Brooks said the group plans to spread awareness and have more cleanup events throughout the year to help reduce the amount of garbage in the river.

Additionally, there are plans to work on making disposal of tires, recyclable materials and trash easier, to ease the temptation of dumping garbage in the river.

"We were able to get tons of trash out of the river this year, which is good. On the flip side, it's disappointing that there is so much trash there at all," Brooks said. "If we can make it easier to get rid of trash, then people won't want to dump it in the river."

"I just hope some of the stuff we pulled this year is old garbage coming to the surface. I'm hoping not all of it is new this year."

blawlis@gannett.com

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Twitter: @BarrettLawlis