Source To Sea

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Created on Monday, 29 September 2014 17:42

Written by Kendra Carter

NORTHEAST KINGDOM - On Sunday a small group of volunteers met up at the Groton Town Garage to participate in the Connecticut River Source to Sea clean-up.

 “It means cleaning up our rivers and keeping Vermont beautiful,” said Roy Shiff, Water Resource Engineer.

The clean up was organized by The Connecticut River Watershed Council, who have been hosting the event for eighteen years now.

The idea behind the project is to clean all parts of the river, which stretches from Vermont all the way to Connecticut, by having volunteers from several towns join in.

Last year over 2200 volunteers collected 45 tons of trash from the river  In 2013, the Watershed Council pulled over 45 tons of trash from the river with the help of over 2200 volunteers.

Volunteers have pulled all sorts of interesting things from the river. Tires and shopping carts are very common, but refrigerators and even porta potties have been found in the river.

The clean up is about more than just making the river attractive. Debris can be hurtful to the ecosystem and even cause flooding.

“When you have a lot of trash and debris along there over, it really impacts down river in terms of damming it up and causing more flood damage. So it’s important to pick up trash,” said volunteer Karen Storie.

If you would like to learn more about the clean up, or about the river in general you can visit The Connecticut River Watershed Council online.