Volunteers Clear Trash From River Banks

Over the weekend, more than 50 volunteers came by car, boat and bus to the banks of the Delaware River in Tullytown Borough to clean up discarded waste.

The Greenbelt Overhaul Alliance of Levittown (GOAL) hosted the clean up of a 1.5 mile stretch of river bank on Waste Management’s property and nearby Franklin Cove.

GOAL volunteer and Tullytown Councilman Ed Armstrong said the volunteers worked under the Saturday sun and collected a mix of trash and recycles that have been pushed out of the river and onto the shore during high tides.

The clean-up crews worked feverishly in several spots and were able to fill dumpsters donated by Waste Management partially with trash and recyclables by mid-day, GOAL President Dale Frazier said.

Frazier said on Saturday alone GOAL was able to double the amount of waste they’ve collected since their first clean-up event in 2009.

“About 90 percent of what we collected out there was recyclable,” he said.

Frazier and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Program Coordinator Michelle Dunn both said the items recovered from the shoreline along Waste Management do not come from the landfill, but rather from littering and storm run-off from up the river.

A group of volunteers also cleared underbrush that was blocking river access at a boat ramp designed to create easy access for emergency crews to put boats in the river.

Local Boy Scouts, employees of Waste Management and Sesame Place both volunteered to clean the river banks.

Following the cleanup, GOAL hosted guest speakers at Tullytown Borough Hall in the evening to talk about the ecology and the history of river. Fish and Boat Commission employees Andrew Desko and Mike Fisher spoke along with Langhorne  Mayor and River Historian Chris Blayden.

The weekend cleanup was sponsored by Waste Management, Sesame Place, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, D & S Boat Sales, Bucks County Conservation District, Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and other, GOAL said.

For more information on upcoming cleanups, visit GOAL’s website at LTownGOAL.com.