Westerly Land Trust organizes cleanup of Pawcatuck River

The Pawcatuck River might divide Hopkinton and Westerly, but trash is not defined by boundaries - and neither is the Westerly Land Trust.

Members and friends of the land trust set out in kayaks, canoes and two johnboats on Saturday to pick up trash. While there is always trash to be found floating in the river and on its banks, recent flooding exacerbated the problem.

The crew of 10 volunteers launched from the Bradford Fish Access on Route 91 at 9 a.m. and finished at 3 p.m. at the land trust's Flora Whiteley Preserve just above the Potter Hill Dam. Along the way the group collected enough trash to fill three johnboats.

One of the johnboats was emptied at the Anderson Preserve about a mile or so from the Potter Hill Dam and filled again in that last stretch.

The trash included five large garbage bags of plastic, three tires, three plastic lawn chairs, six five-gallon buckets, two gasoline cans, two tarps, a bottle of windshield washer fluid, a container of pesticide, a large reflective orange barrel used by road crews, two 50-gallon-size recycling bins full of cans and bottles, and a nearly full quart of oil.

The container of oil was found sitting atop a log in the river.

Also hauled out were large drive belts from machinery, apparently washed from the Bradford Printing and Finishing plant.

What wasn't pulled out were several pallets, large pieces of docks and rafts, and the pontoon from an old catamaran. They will have to await another effort.

The cleanup crew included this reporter, Larry Orlando, Sally Hanson, Liz Anderson, and Carol Mathews, of Westerly, Bob Jones, of Pawcatuck, Rhea Guertin, of East Greenwich, Jim Schroer, of Exeter, and John and Bob Fifer, of Alton.

Orlando had taken a trip down the river three weeks ago and contacted land trust Executive Director Kelly Presley about the trash he saw. Orlando said there were a few planning meetings and a walk along the Grills Preserve, which borders the river on the Westerly and Hopkinton side.

Presley eventually called Hanson, who was able to contact via e-mail a group of kayakers who take part in various land trust-sponsored trips.

"A lot of the trash was trapped by the trees and buried in leaf litter," said Orlando, who noted another effort might be needed in the fall when the leaves are off the trees.

"It is also no coincidence that when you go by a house on the river you find trash," he added. "We took a lot of plastic out of the river."

The stretch from Route 91 in Bradford and down the river for a mile or so had a lot of trash. The stretch below the old Polly Coon Bridge abutments and down to the old power station was relatively free of trash, as well as the section from there to Meeting House bridge.

Below the bridge the trash was everywhere.

During a respite at the old power station property in Hopkinton, the crew took a breather along with two other recreational kayakers and a Boy Scout troop from Moosup, Conn., who were also paddling the river on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Reflecting on the trash, Hanson said it should be common sense not to throw trash into the river - but that is not always the case.

"It's aggravating," she said. "But it doesn't hurt to remind people not do to it."

At the end of the trip there were comments from several volunteers that they had gotten their workout for the day. Orlando, Shroer and the Fifers had taken turns pulling the johnboats down the river. The wind wreaked havoc in some stretches with that effort.

The cleanup comes at an opportune time. The land trust will soon end its hiking program for the season and start its kayak trips, said Hanson.

"If we use the river we have a responsibility to clean it," she said.

Orlando says a lot more trash can be picked up when the water level drops, but he was happy about the amount of trash that was brought back. For now, the group will return on May 29 to clean the section of the river from Potter Hill to downtown Westerly.

The group will meet at the Potter Hill dam at 9 a.m. and shuttle cars to the takeout point.

"Any time you are on the water it is fun," said Janice Fifer. She is active with the land trust's hiking group and will take part in the series of kayak trips in July.

"I try to do what I can for the land trust," she added.