Area Residents Angling to Catch Floating Trash
Pontoon boat owners plan to sort waste on Monongahela River
Morgantown Dominion Post
25 June 2010
By Alex Lang
A few local residents hope their plan to collect trash as it streams
down the Monongahela River reduces the environmental impact of floating
garbage.
The plan, presented Thursday during the Monongahela River Recreation
& Commerce Committee’s meeting, calls for Tim Terman and Ralph
LaRue to gather garbage from the decks of their pontoon boats on the
Mon River.
Trash builds up behind the Morgantown Lock and Dam and when the Army
Corps of Engineers opens the gates to let water flow through the dam
and the trash is sucked along.
The two will take out their pontoon boats with a line of bouys in
between them to catch the trash, Terman said. They hope to catch the
garbage, sort it out and let natural debris continue to float while
collecting items like plastic bottles, tires and other garbage.
The cleanup work would be done by volunteers, Terman said.
“We just want to try something,” LaRue said.
LaRue said even if they only capture a small portion of the trash it
will make a significant difference on the river.
For now, there’s a phone-tree system that alerts people when the gates
are opened. An upgraded call system, based on the plan, would go to
officials of the Upper Monongahela River Association, who would call
and e-mail others. The hope is to ensure enough notice so the pontoon
boats can be on the river — ready for when the trash comes through the
dam.
Gary Householder, with the Army Corps of Engineers, said that the call
system is ready for use. But, it hasn’t been activated this year
because water levels haven’t risen to the point where the gates need to
be opened.
The Corps doesn’t intentionally open the gates to let the trash float
on, Householder said.
There is a lot of trash up stream, Householder said, so he didn’t know
how anyone could remove all of it. The Corps doesn’t have any room in
its budget to do trash removal.