River Pollution Control

[Billfish715]

I found this on the F&G Website. It's both disturbing as well as refreshing. The amount of litter that was floating in the river was disgusting. The fact that there is a cleanup mechanism to prevent much of that debris from entering the ocean is refreshing. True, it's a big river that flows through a very congested, populated area with catch basins that dump floatables directly into the water. Shopping malls and strip malls with large parking areas that are cluttered with disposables are just as much of a source of pollutants.

I wonder if it's possible for the state or one of the other agencies that monitor a stream's health to buy a few more of these machines. There is just as much floatable material in the lower tidal portions of the larger rivers.


https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20...the_passa.html

[NJ219bands]

The banks of the tidal Delaware River are loaded with litter. I never saw the Delaware Riverkeeper Network do a cleanup yet but I saw the Delaware River Fishermen's Association do cleanups in the Duck Island power plant. Sportsmen do more for nature than any other group.

[CaptMarc]

I live near where the Passaic River goes over the Dundee Falls. After a big rainstorm, there is a culvert that comes under Route 21, and the amount of plastic bottles and litter from the storm sewers is incredible. People throw there empty bottles in the gutter or in the inlets and it floats out when it rains hard. It floats out over the falls and into the river.

[june181901]

A ten cent per bottle deposit will clean it up almost immediately. I was working in downtown Manhattan when their deposit law took effect and the streets were cleaned up in 48 hours except for Yoo- Hoo cans which somehow were not subject to deposits.

[Capt John]

Originally Posted by Billfish715

I found this on the F&G Website. It's both disturbing as well as refreshing. The amount of litter that was floating in the river was disgusting. The fact that there is a cleanup mechanism to prevent much of that debris from entering the ocean is refreshing. True, it's a big river that flows through a very congested, populated area with catch basins that dump floatables directly into the water. Shopping malls and strip malls with large parking areas that are cluttered with disposables are just as much of a source of pollutants.

I wonder if it's possible for the state or one of the other agencies that monitor a stream's health to buy a few more of these machines. There is just as much floatable material in the lower tidal portions of the larger rivers.


https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20...the_passa.html

Billie,

Just watched that great video.....BRAVO to those two guys. Could really use that collector machine in NY harbor and other NJ places too. Thanks for the informative post.

[Billfish715]

Just ask anyone whose boat has ever broken down because their motor's intake was clogged with a piece of plastic or had to replace a lower unit or strut or transducer after hitting a piece of wood. Everyone lives downstream and the Sandy Hook/Raritan Bays and their adjoining shorelines are pretty far downstream. Just take a walk along any of the bayside beaches and see all of the litter for yourself. I'm not aware of any mechanized vessel that collects debris in the two bays I just mentioned. Maybe it's time for an agency to look into buying a contraption like the one that is used on the Passaic River to help clean up the bay.

[hudsonfisherman]

My grandmother lived in lyndhurst all her life and I spend a lot of time in the summer at her house two blocks from the ball fields on river road. Of course we were always poking around the river despite being told not to and I remember it was pretty bad. I lived in and grew up in cedar grove, bordering little falls and we would fish and play in the river by the old Beattie rugs plant (now condos) and the river would flow green and red and orange and smelled like what I now recognize as phenols. One summer we all went swimming in it and got sick as dogs for about a week. They called it "river fever". To see this work going on makes me feel a little better about the future for my grandkids - as long as we don't water down environmental regulations anymore or cut the funding for environmental cleanups and are willing to enforce the laws with real sentences. Single use plastic containers and bags are a big offender, maybe we were better off with soda fountains and paper cups.