Crew of ‘garbage barge’ will be in Ironton for next two weeks

A group committed to cleaning up the nation’s waterways is seeking volunteers for when they are working around Ironton the next two weeks.

Crews of the nonprofit Living Lands and Waters have been working in South Point over the past few days, with their fleet of barges docked in Catlettsburg, taking volunteers out to collect trash accumulated along the riverbank.

Founded in 1997, the group, based in East Moline, Illinois, has taken part in clean ups, invasive species removal and tree plantings, according to Leah Caforelli, the group’s marketing manager, who was taking crews along the bank on Friday by jon boat, collecting tires, plastic bottles and other items and taking them to the group’s barges.

“A lot of this probably came from recent flooding,” she said of the piles of tires collecting in the brush along the bank. “We’ve seen islands of plastic bottles clustering all along the river.”

The waste is taken to the “garbage barge,” which is built from repurposed materials.

“We use material, rather than consuming new stuff,” Caforelli said, pointing out that the awning on the boat is comprised of old license plates and its trusses are made from steels from a flooded strip club.

Also part of the fleet are the tire barge, the excavator barge, for breaking down the scrap metal, and the solar-powered house barge, in which the crew lives.

“We spend about six to nine months of the year on the barge,” Caforelli said.

Caforelli said tires, which are among the most numerous of the items they collect, are recycled after collection.

“They’re used for track and field material or turned into mulch,” she said.

Living Lands and Waters was founded by Chad Pregracke, who was honored by CNN as their

“Hero of the year” in 2013. He was awarded the Jefferson Award for Public Service in 2002.

Having grown up along the river, he notified government agencies of the problem of pollution and trash clogging the nation’s waterways. After feeling nothing was being done, he decided to take action and launched the group.

Caforelli said Living Lands and Waters has collected 9.9 million pounds of trash in their years of operation, working along the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri rivers. More than 100,000 volunteers have assisted the group in the efforts.

Caforelli said this is the group’s first visit in the Lawrence County area, following a stop in Portsmouth earlier this summer. From Ironton, they will be headed to Wheelersburg. She said they hopes to make more visits.

They have been working on both the Ohio and Kentucky sides of the river during their visit. Caforelli said their mission on the Ohio has been going on for about three weeks and will continue until November.

After the group wraps up their clean up in South Point today, they will next be headed to Ironton, where they have clean up scheduled for the next two weeks.

Caforelli said these will take place at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 9-10 and 16-17, and at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11 and 18.

She said the group will set up a meeting spot at a boat ramp and give volunteers a safety briefing and provide supplies. Those taking part in morning clean up will be treated to lunch on the house barge.

She said those who are interested in taking part can visit the group’s website at www.livinglandsandwaters.org and click on the ‘volunteer’ tab, where there is a section for community river clean ups and registration.

They can also contact her at 309-236-0728.