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Keeping rivers alive
Clean-up nets more than 45 bags of trash
4 Rivers Alive pic 1
Etowah Water and Sewer Authority employees teamed up with Keep Dawson County Beautiful participated in the Rivers Alive clean up event last Thursday. The group from the authority picked covered all the bridges from Hwy. 53, Hugh Stowers Road, Hwy. 9 and Kelly Bridge Road. - photo by Photo/Submitted

Etowah Water and Sewer Authority organized this year’s Rivers Alive event Oct. 2, an annual volunteer waterways cleanup in Georgia.

 

 

Keep Dawson County Beautiful participated as well as the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and other local volunteers.

 

 

“These cleanups are so important because it makes people conscious of our water resources,” said Doris Cook, resource manager for the authority. “Besides keeping our waters clean, it’s also important for the surrounding habitat and farming process.”

 

 

Keep Dawson County Beautiful immediately signed up for the event, according to executive director Cathy Brooks.

 

 

“Keep Dawson County Beautiful is proud to participate in the annual Rivers Alive event,” Brooks said. “It is up to each of us to take responsibility for our environment. We all contribute to the pollution. It’s up to us to give back to the environment.”

 

 

The annual Rivers Alive cleanup event is just one way Keep Dawson County Beautiful cares for the local environment.

 

 

“We focus on bringing meaningful change to our environment through quality of life services including litter prevention, solid waste planning and coordination, environmental education, beautification and conservation.  Our participation in River’s Alive is just one component for all we strive to achieve,” Brooks said.

 

 

This year more than 45 bags of trash were picked up along rivers and bridges on Hwy. 136, Hwy. 53, Hwy. 9, Kelly Bridge Road, Hugh Stowers Road and Amicalola.

 

 

Volunteers were split up into groups and spent two to three hours cleaning their designated areas.

 

 

Afterwards, participants were fed pizza and given free T-shirts adorned with facts about Rivers Alive.

 

 

In 10 years of cleaning Georgia’s waterways, Rivers Alive has recruited nearly 183,000 participants, picked up a total of 3,862,348 pounds of garbage and has inspired 1,191 cleanups across the state. All of this has resulted in 12,086 miles of clean waterways throughout Georgia. 

 

 

“We plan to do this every year,” Cook said. “We’d always love to see more volunteers.”

 

 

For more information or to suggest another cleanup, contact Doris Cook at (706) 216-8474.