Last week ended another season of Rivers Alive clean-up events sponsored by the Environmental Institute of Georgia (EIOG) and local governments across Fayette County. The five clean-up events saw participation from school students, city employees, elected officials and residents wanting to remove debris from roadways and waterways.

In total, these volunteers removed from our streams: 17 tires, three appliances and two pieces of furniture, said EIOG board member and environmental activist Dennis Chase.

A total of 94 bags of trash included more than 700 plastic bottles, 540 glass bottles, 515 cans, 39 toys, parts of 20 cars, large amounts of construction material and hundreds of other pieces of trash, Chase said.

Chase said there were at least two other clean-up events held in Fayette County in recent months. Specific to the Rivers Alive initiative, Chase provided a recap of those events:

During October and the first weekend of November, EIOG was cosponsor and the primary organizer of events on the following streams: Whitewater Creek (two locations), Gingercake Creek, Flat Creek, Morning Creek, Lake Horton and Line Creek (two locations).

The other primary sponsor of these events were the stormwater departments from Fayette County, the cities of Fayetteville, Peachtree City and Tyrone.

Other groups included several Girl Scout troops, Boy Scouts, high school Key Clubs and their Kiwanis leaders, AP students from high schools, city and county staff and numerous citizens, Chase said.

There were 138 registered volunteers for the five events, though a number of those volunteers helped in more than one event. Chase said these citizens donated at least 352 hours of their time, and this total does not include additional time spent organizing and reporting on each of these events.

The Environmental Institute of Georgia is headquartered on a 300-acre nature preserve on Bohannon Road in Fairburn.

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