|
Kittatinny cleans up the river again
By DAVID HULSE
MATAMORAS, PA — They were totaling the take last Thursday
morning after some 344 volunteers spent three days picking trash along the
Upper Delaware in Kittatinny Canoes 14th annual River Cleanup.
All told, they pulled out some 12.7 tons of trash along 70
miles of riverbank. That’s a lot of junk, but Kittatinny co-owner Dave Jones
said the total has been on a downward trend for the past couple years. Jones,
who usually participates with a diving snorkel and mask said, “I’ve never
seen the river this clean. It’s really getting harder and harder to find
junk,” he said.
Still, there are chronic problem areas like the Hawks Nest,
where people continue to throw trash over the stone walls. Kittatinny volunteers
pulled two empty dumpsters from the foot of the cliffs this year.
Tires, once a plague, are getting harder to find as well,
Jones said. Some 297 tires were collected this year, including two huge machine
tires on steel rims.
“I have no idea how we got them out of the river,” Jones said.
Every year many of Kittatinny’s suppliers provide help with
food and supplies. This year, for the first time, two municipalities joined
in as the Town of Deerpark and the City of Port Jervis helped truck some
of junk away.
Having decided that a clean river is better for business,
Kittatinny has absorbed thousands of dollars in costs annually, providing
campsites, meals, boats and transportation for its volunteers. Over the past
14 years the nationally recognized program has been responsible for ridding
the Delaware of 6,411 tires, more than 3.5 tons of cans and a total 232.2
tons of assorted trash.
|
