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Lady Bird Lake
October 27, 2009
Crews picking out tons of trash from Lady Bird Lake
As storm drains and creeks drain from the recent rains, about 25 city workers are trapping and removing tons of trash that have been dumped into Lady Bird Lake, said William Fordyce, who directs and takes part in the cleanup for the city’s Watershed Protection Department.
City crews have been on the lake since this morning emptying boom nets that trap refuse coming in from places such as Shoal and Bouldin creeks.
The crews are in chest and hip waders in the lake, using pitchforks, pool nets, rakes and their hands, Fordyce said. They’ll be on the lake for the next several days until most of the trapped garbage is collected and hauled off, Fordyce said.
“I’m pretty proud of the works these guys do,” Fordyce said, speaking on a cell phone from one of the trash sites. “It’s pretty hard work.”
Fordyce isn’t sure how much trash will be collected after the heavy rains yesterday. He’s expecting crews to pick up tons of refuse, he said, but probably not as much as the 40 tons collected after rain in the second week of September. Fordyce called that rain the first flush, because the drought had allowed for a lot of garbage to collect in storm drains and dry creek beds.
On average, watershed protection crews remove 200 tons of trash every year from Lady Bird Lake, Fordyce said. About half of what the crews remove is natural, like branches. The other half, Fordyce said is styrofoam and plastic, and all of it junk.
Over the past several years, watershed protection has gotten significant cleanup help from volunteers coordinated by Keep Austin Beautiful, Fordyce said. “It has been a great partnership,” he said. “They have their own storm action team.”
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