RESULTS — Some of the trash collected during the JB Green Team’s Ohio River cleanup on August 9 was found in the back of a trailer. – Contributed by
KNOX TOWNSHIP – On the morning of August 9, Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Ben Swoyer and a group of deputies searched the underbrush along Old Route 7, which runs along the Ohio River between Toronto and Empire.
Over a distance of three kilometers, the group collected 40 bags of garbage as well as 10 tires, two televisions and a sofa.
Swoyer, who has been helping with cleanup efforts around the river since his Boy Scout days in the 1990s, is now Jefferson County’s environmental officer. The position is sponsored in part by the sanitation department and is dedicated to tracking littering and illegal dumping.
“The river is kind of neglected,” Swoyer commented afterwards. “We need to take better care of it.”
The action was part of the Jefferson-Belmont Regional Solid Waste Authority’s participation in the annual Ohio River Sweep, a multi-state initiative aimed at cleaning up portions of the river’s 3,000-mile shoreline and many of its tributaries.
Since 1989, raids have been organized by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, the Foundation for Ohio River Education and state environmental agencies. Originally, the raids all took place on one day a year and spanned six states: Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
The Jefferson-Belmont Regional Solid Waste Authority, also founded in 1989 and known as the JB Green Team, calls on volunteers to participate in the river cleanup every year. They are equipped with materials provided by ORSANCO and commemorative T-shirts.
“Unfortunately, we don’t seem to be finding less trash,” said Louise Holliday, environmental educator with the JB Green Team in Jefferson County. “Some years we find trash, some years we don’t. It just depends.”
Holliday said this year’s five cleanups in Jefferson County involved a total of 89 volunteers, cleaning areas in Rayland, at the Steubenville Marina, along Old Route 7 and twice around Seven Creeks Road.
The 6.5-mile sweep collected 315 bags of trash weighing a total of 10,475 pounds, Holliday estimated. It also collected four bags of recyclables weighing a total of 95 pounds, 29 tires weighing a total of 688.5 pounds, and 1,560 pounds of other material, including couches, mattresses and shopping carts.
The Aug. 9 sweep will be the JB Green team’s last sweep before the end of the year, Holliday said.
The JB Green team typically hosts one sweep each in Jefferson and Belmont counties, Holliday said, but this year there was a need to host more. She added that Swoyer helped organize the extra trips.
Swoyer, who enlisted the help of participants in Jefferson County’s community service program in his cleanup, acknowledged that it is not possible to clean the entire 34-mile stretch of Jefferson County river, but his goal is to do as much as possible.
It is in everyone’s interest to keep the Ohio River clean, Swoyer said, pointing to the dependence of the recreational and industrial sectors on the Ohio River.
“Many jobs depend on this river,” he said.
Although the JB Green Team won’t resume its official cleanup efforts until next year, Swoyer pointed out that anyone can do a local cleanup and receive equipment from the Green Team. If there’s a serious problem, Swoyer said he’s “more than willing” to put together a team to tackle a particularly dirty area, and he already has a few areas on the waiting list to tackle.
