CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Make It Shine coordinator Chris Cartwright understands that no one single event will be able to clean the entire Kanawha River but that will not stop his group from trying Saturday.
The 32nd annual Great Kanawha River Cleanup, sponsored by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s (WVDEP) Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan’s (REAP) Make It Shine program, is set for Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.
Cartwright said he expects around 100 volunteers Saturday, up from 59 volunteers last year.
“I want to get people out there, get community awareness, get some of these kids to come out and realize that anything they throw down may or may not end up n the water. Try to teach people that littering is a problem,” Cartwright told MetroNews.
The 2021 cleanup saw 59 volunteers that helped remove 1.94 tons of litter and 301 tires from 5 sites along the Kanawha River.
Cleanup sites will be along the Kanawha River in Kanawha, Putnam, and Fayette counties. Those wishing to volunteer for this year’s cleanup should register with the WVDEP so enough supplies can be obtained for each location.
REAP will supply bags and gloves for volunteers and arrange for trash to be hauled away. All volunteers will receive a T-shirt.
Recent flooding in these areas has caused debris to flow into the waters. But Cartwright noted that volunteers have a hard time getting to that kind of trash.
“Most of the banks are relatively steep. There are not a lot of sandbars up and down the river, there’s not a lot of public access along the Kanawha River. Most of that flood debris is probably going to end up in places where volunteers can’t access it or it’s just going to move on,” he said.