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Volunteers Muscle 40 Tons of Trash from Lower Des Moines River
Iowa Ag Connection - 07/27/2016

Southeastern Iowa's Des Moines River is now 40 tons of trash lighter, thanks to the efforts of 329 volunteers.

This July, 329 volunteers took part in the 14th annual Project AWARE, traversing 52 miles of the Des Moines River through Wapello, Davis, Van Buren and Lee counties from Eldon to Croton. Project AWARE, which stands for A Watershed Awareness River Expedition, involves hundreds of people who spend anywhere from one to five days exploring Iowa's rivers and picking up trash.

"We were so surprised and impressed at the large number of volunteers who helped all week cleaning the trash from our river," said Stacey Reese, Executive Director of Villages of Van Buren. "There were even a few locals who helped out. I think the magnitude of this event helped make a lot of people more aware of how important it is to be good stewards of our waterways. So now, it's up to us to keep it clean."

Items removed included a motorcycle, boat, Dumpster, several bathtubs, a car frame, bridge pylons and much more. Volunteers also removed 329 tires. This year, 77 percent of the trash pulled from the river was able to be recycled. Scrap metal was the heaviest item removed. Lee County Conservation Board handled the 20.2 tons of scrap metal removed during the event. One item volunteers were pleasantly surprised to encounter was geodes, Iowa's state rock.

A total of 115 volunteers participated all five days of the event, but with some participating single days, there were about 183 volunteers on the water each day, ranging in age from 4 to 82. About 17 percent of this year's participants at the family-friendly event were under the age of 18. In addition to Iowa, volunteers hailed from seven other states, plus Sweden. Thirty-one of the volunteers were from Wapello, Davis, Van Buren, and Lee counties.

Project AWARE activities also included dedication of the lower Des Moines River as a state water trail.


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