By DENNIS CHASE

October is the month when state-wide cleanup efforts takes place, and this year the Line Creek Association of Fayette County helped organize four such events here in Fayette County.

The good news is that we picked up a very large amount of trash from our streams and areas immediately adjacent to those streams. The bad news is that we picked up a very large amount of trash.

Two of this year’s cleanup sites were new so it isn’t a big surprise that we would find a significant accumulation of trash. However, one of our sites has been cleaned each year for the last eight years, and we picked up just about the same amount of garbage again this year. That says something about our society.

A note of thanks goes to the groups that helped plan, fund and participate in this year’s cleanups. The Rotary Clubs of Peachtree City and Fayetteville played a significant role in all of our cleanups, providing funding for T-shirts and a large number of volunteers. It is hard to express appreciation for such community support. To all Rotarians, thank you.

We had a large group of AP students from McIntosh High School; some participated in three of the four events and all were appreciated. One of the events included Key Club students from Sandy Creek High School and more Key Club students from Whitewater High School. Our cleanup efforts would not have been possible without all of these hard-working students.

Integrated Science and Engineering of Fayetteville contributed some talent to this effort that was amazing. They designed a special T-shirt for Fayette County and all we had to do was send the design in for printing. They also provided bottled water and had staff participate in the events.

Much of the effort is centered around the recent stormwater permits that Peachtree City, Fayetteville and Fayette County manage. The four events included assistance by each of those local governments to dispose of the trash picked up, part of the cost for the T-shirts and staff to assist with loading the trash once gathered.

Several citizens, in addition to those from the groups mentioned, joined with these cleanup efforts and to all of them, I say thank you.

We held events on Oct. 21, 28, and two on Nov. 11, 2006. A total of 85 volunteers participated, contributing 216 hours of their time to the four events. Eighty-eight bags of trash were gathered along with large piles of tires, boards, a mattress, parts of cars and a variety of unidentified bits and pieces of other debris too numerous to list.

There are a lot of reasons why we expend such an effort to remove garbage from our streams and wetlands. One very important reason is directly related to the recent stormwater permits that I mentioned above.

I don’t know if last Wednesday’s heavy rain event included any local flooding of streets around the county, but I did see news clips of some very dangerous flooding situations along some streets and highways. Most of those conditions were directly related to trash being washed into the drain systems and blocking release of the water.

If you have ever hydroplaned when you drove into ponded water, you know just how dangerous it is. Perhaps if you didn’t experience that problem last Wednesday, it was a result of the piles of trash we removed.

A few years ago, a new species of mosquito found its way into our neighborhoods. The Asian tiger mosquito is that newcomer, and this species is especially adept at finding open water to lay eggs. Like our native mosquito species, Asian tiger eggs deposited in our streams and lakes are mostly eaten by predators. But the newcomers are abundant because they are so good at finding water in the bottles and cans thrown along the roads and paths.

A few ounces of rainwater in that fast-food paper cup can produce as many as 100 mosquitoes. Where we have predators, nearly all mosquito larva are destroyed, but in the trash along the side of the stream there are no predators and we pay the itchy price.

I reported that we collected over 1,500 items that would or could hold water. That number is probably a conservative estimate, but you can do your own calculation of the number of mosquitoes we prevented from surviving. In light of the recent issues related to the spread of disease by mosquitoes, I would judge this cleanup effort to be a significant contribution to our community.

We live in a reasonably affluent community, yet when we have cleaned the streams and wetlands year after year, we find numerous bags of trash year after year. Some of our communities are now paying stormwater fees and it seems strange that some of that money has to go to pick up trash from the same spot.

Obviously not everyone finds the side of the road to be where they toss their drink container, yet there are thousands of containers out there so it is more than just a few oddballs junking up our environment.

Dennis Chase, now retired, was a fish and wildlife biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service for more than 26 years. Since retiring, he has worked as a consultant for Fayette County on environmental concerns, is a volunteer with the Line Creek Association of Fayette County, and has published numerous newspaper columns.

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