Over the edge?

OK, maybe I'm going a bit over the edge - you tell me. Here's the deal, Friday I went out and bought hip-waders. I don't fish. I don't hunt. I pick up trash.

I went out Saturday morning and hit the Nashua River Watershed at Rt. 117 in Lancaster. My goal was to finally make a dent in the enormous logjam between Rt. 117 and Center Rd. I strapped on the hip-waders, grabbed a bunch of trash bags, some strong waterproof gloves and got into it.

I worked for about 3 hours on one small area. My goal wasn't to haul everything away, rather collect and bag as much as I could reach. I've been picking at this one area for a couple of years now, but nothing seems to make a dent.

I was in as deep as I could go, collecting debris. I pulled 2 tires, 2 coolers, a propane tank, and about 9 bags of rubbish out of the water and from all around the island. That was hard work, and it certainly made a dent, but it's probably less than half of what's there. Here's a before shot:



And here's an after shot:



I couldn't get everything, but I really didn't expect to. It's a good start on what is the single biggest problem area on the Nashua River now.

If you're paddling past, there are many bags of collected trash still on the island, please grab some and take it with you, I'd appreciate it.

Product Labeling

I recently installed some flooring in my home which required an adhesive. So I finished the project and ended up with a little bit of the stuff left. Now, obviously this stuff isn't exactly inert.
So I looked at the packaging for instructions as to how to dispose of the product. Nothing. I believe it should be the responsibility of packaged product manufacturers - especially those which are hazardous - to include instructions as to how to properly dispose of their product.
Think about it - when you buy paint, does it include instructions for proper disposal? Not likely.

Al Gore - Nobel Peace Prize

You know what - good for him! I'm not political, and he's not holding any office, but I think that's a nice use of the Peace Prize - to showcase someone's environmental advocacy.

Nashua River Lancaster

Saturday was a spectacular day, so I decided to try to work on an area that's been a problem for a long time - between rt. 117 and Center Rd. There's a corn field that's private property, but apparently the owner is nice enough to let paddlers park there.

I walked down to the river and it was so low. I know it hasn't rained in weeks, but I was still surprised. So I threw in and began the first trash run with my new kayak. There were numerous items, which wasn't a big surprise since that part of the river's been a bit inaccessible this year. But I got downstream to where I hoped, the fork where the river splits around a small island and it forks off to a dead end stream.

There's a huge logjam there. I cleaned up a tire, and a basket full of trash, and headed back upstream to unload it. But the river's so shallow, it was tricky to get back, but I managed, and headed back for another load. I filled up again and went back to the truck.

I didn't make a dent in that pile. It's just so huge, and tough to get into. Honestly, if I had good tough hip-waders, I could do a lot more. After all, the water's only about 2 feet deep there right now.