The River Runs Deep

Out of sight - out of mind? It always amazes me how some people just don't care about their surroundings and they toss trash, cigarette butts and various other things wherever they can find a place to toss it; as long as they don’t have to see it or think about it anymore.

I have personally decided that there are different classifications to littering. All are bad but some worse than others.

There is the litter that people throw from their cars onto the side of the road.  You know the fast food bags, beer bottles, and anything else they generally can't wait for the next stop to dispose of properly for some reason.  A lot of this type of litter will get picked up by state workers, people doing community service and eco-friendly groups trying to maintain their local environment.  Some will get snatched up by wildlife and may harm or kill them.

Then there are the cigarettes.  A category of its own.  This is a personal pet peeve of mine being an ex-smoker myself.  Even when I smoked, I had an issue with the people who think it is OK to drop their butts anywhere - literally - and just leave them.  Whether it is out their car window, on the sidewalk or, my personal favorite, on a hiking trail - I mean really - if you are up to hiking, at least leave the butts at home for a couple hours.  You will survive!  Do they understand that those filters were created to help prevent some of the chemicals from going into their lungs?  Ever look at a used filter?  Gross, eh?  Well just think of the poor baby chicks who are living in a nest made from them – yes, they make great cushion for the birds’ nests but they are toxic.  If you are going to smoke, please, just dispose of your butts properly!

But I think the worst type of littering is with our countries waterways.

Take the Merrimack River for example.  I recently had the opportunity to spend some time on the river with Rocky Morrison the President of The Clean River Project.  I got a crash course on just how bad the situation is.  Rocky and his crew with this not-for-profit organization have one goal - to clean up the river.  Wow!  Talk about giant monster goal!

According to Wikipedia, “The Merrimack River is a 117-mile-long (188 km) river in the northeastern United States. It rises at the confluence of the Pemigewasset and Winnipesaukee rivers in Franklin, New Hampshire, flows southward into Massachusetts, and then flows northeast until it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Newburyport.” That’s a lot of water!  This river is also the main water source for many communities and yet people continue to treat it like a dump.

On my trip down river we stopped at a few of the catch nets Clean River Project has on the water to "catch" debris as it floats by.  Talk about gross!  And this is just the stuff that is floating.  At the nets we saw bottles, cans, paper, basketballs, tennis balls (Fido apparently missed a few!) along with bottle caps, needles and countless other floating trash (some just way too disgusting to mention here!) that had been carelessly discarded into the river. 

And do you remember the issue with the disks from the Hooksett water treatment plant over a year ago?  To refresh your memory, the disks are used to catch harmful bacteria and it is estimated that a few million were released into the river and have since been found down as far as Provincetown and further!  I watched a few float by me on the river as we made our way around.  Not to mention the hundreds or more that were caught up in the debris in the nets.

The thing that bothered me the most was when I saw a duck – a cute little Mallard duck – fly over and sit on the pile of this debris and start picking through it.  Rocky tells me when they clean the nets they have to let baby turtles out and other wildlife that has become stuck in the mess.  These poor defensless animals have no idea how toxic this mess is.

Under the water is even worse! Out of sight out of mind really plays a hand here.  Cars, tires, old electronics, furniture and whatever else people just think is okay to throw in the river.

I could go on and on about how strongly I feel about this situation but talking about it doesn’t help.  What is needed is action.  That is exactly what Rocky Morrison’s Clean River Project was created for.  If you are interested in getting involved or just checking it out, visit www.cleanriverproject.org for information on how you can help!

Remember - keeping this planet clean is entirely up to us.  It is our choice.  Please choose wisely.