Gas Can, Barrel, Tires: Strangest Things Found In DuPage River

PLAINFIELD, IL — On Sunday, a day after the designated Public Lands Day, members of Plainfield's chapter of the Backcountry Hunters & Anglers organized a cleanup of the DuPage River. Among the items they pulled from the body of water, some of the stranger pieces included several tires, a 55-gallon plastic barrel and a fuel can.

While John Acott, treasurer for BHA's Plainfield chapter, and one other floated down the river on canoes, others stuck to the shoreline and collected litter into garbage bags. After cleaning for three hours, the group took their findings to a Hammel Woods dumpster, left unlocked for them by the Forest Preserve District of Will County.

Some of what they found included what one might expect — alcohol bottles, cans, styrofoam. Other things, like the large blue barrel, took Acott by surprise.

"What kind of shocked me was it was there for a while," Acott told Patch of the barrel. "How many people looked at it and just kept going? Nobody ever pulled it out."

RELATED: DuPage River Cleanup: BHA Organizes 3-Hour Event Sunday

In the river, Acott said they found three tires, one of which he suspected was from farming equipment, since it spanned about 5 feet in diameter. Another tire was filled with concrete, he said. But since he and another volunteer were only in canoes, they couldn't carry the heavy tires out of the river.

Another odd find included a gas can, which Acott said still had some liquid in it, though he didn't know if it was water that had collected or leftover gasoline. He also collected clothes dangling from trees and plastic that had gotten caught in branches.

"By the third mile, our canoes and kayaks were full," Acott said, adding they floated down a 5-mile stretch of the river. "We couldn't put anything more in it."

While some volunteers were members of BHA and Friends of the DuPage River, a few others heard about the efforts on social media and joined the cleanup. Acott said he was pleasantly surprised to be joined floating on the river by someone from the latter group.

In total, he said about 7 members of the two organizations came to Sunday's cleanup, but if more non-members were around the river cleaning up, he couldn't know for sure since "everyone worked independently."

"[It was] just a wonderful event to do," Acott said. "We were all pretty tired by the end of the day, but I think everyone felt really good about what they contributed and what they cleaned up and packed out. Honestly, I think we made a difference. Gratifying work, I'll tell you that."

This September's event might have been the first, but Acott said it won't be the last.

"We'll definitely do it again next year," he said. "Absolutely."

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