Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Nashua River and Hazardous Waste

I've been collecting trash and whatever else I find on the rivers for about 6 years now. Each week I put trash by the curb, recycling every other week, and I am able to take the tires and propane tanks to my local recycling center, and they know what I'm doing so they let me get rid of those for free. But over time, I accumulate a lot of hazardous household materials.

In the past I would participate in the occasional town-wide hazardous waste days, which amounted to waiting in a long line of cars for hours then paying to dispose of whatever it was you had.

Recently, the Devens HHW (www.DevensHHW.com) opened, and having a shed full of used motor oil, anti-freeze, brake fluid, and a host of other unidentified gifts from the Nashua River, I went down there.

I had some correspondence with the director there, and fully expected an inconvenient experience. But when I arrived, I was greeted by the friendly staff, they inquired about what I had, and did all the work. I of course, asked whether they could cut me a break because a good deal of what I has was obviously from the river, but they're independently funded and had no such provisions.

I gladly paid to be rid of the materials (and have some space in my shed back) and I was off. But basically I paid someone else's disposal fee. It wasn't a fortune, my bill was $60, so about $30 would have been for the river stuff. I'd asked the Nashua River Watershed Association if they had any such programs to help volunteers, but sadly, no.

So here's a question for the readers. Would any corporations be willing to create a small fund for the disposal of waste pulled from rivers. I'm not quite sure how the whole thing would work, but perhaps the funds could be used at the discretion of the DevensHHW and other facilities. I might think a company like @CleanHarbors would be interested. Any takers?


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Kayak Season Opener

Well it was a long winter with everything freezing solid just after Thanksgiving and so much snow, the boat ramps were in accessible, but the season is finally here. Sure, I'd been out once in March, but I consider this past weekend the true beginning of the season.

I made 2 trips. On Saturday, I went to the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge in Harvard, MA. I chose to go upstream from the landing to see the state of things. Overall, not too bad. There are a couple of good sized piles about a mile up, and I worked on those, but I think in general, it's less than most years.

On Sunday, I did a combination bike/kayak trip leaving my bicycle at Rte. 117 and putting in at the site of the old bridge on Rt. 70. There's a new sign saying that it will be the future site of a canoe launch. That will be great, as that's a tough spot to drag your boat through. There was plenty of materials on this stretch, but the current was really strong so a few areas would have been dangerous to try to clean up, and a lot of debris was pushed up over the banks. There was one portage, so there is one large blow-down to cut through at some point.

All in all, great start to what I hope will be a long season of paddling.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Habitat for Humanity Day with The Pedowitz Group

Hi folks, Many of you know I switched jobs at the beginning of the year, I moved from Brainshark to The Pedowitz Group. I don't really use this blog to write about work, but this is a little bit of an exception.
Today, I'm joining the Pedowitz team in Atlanta, GA to work with Habitat for Humanity. It's great to work with an organization that is committed to giving back.
I'll take some pictures and hope to share those with you later.