Renew Our Rivers volunteers clean up multiple Alabama lakes
Renew Our Rivers volunteers gather for the Lay Lake (Plant E.C. Gaston) cleanup April 6. (Wynter Byrd / Alabama News Center)
More than 100 Renew Our Rivers (ROR) volunteers took part in multiple cleanups to remove trash from Alabama’s shorelines during Earth Month. Throughout April, volunteers swept through Lay Lake at E.C. Gaston Plant (Coosa River), Lay Lake (Coosa River), Smith Lake (Cullman County), Smith Lake (Winston County) and Weiss Lake.
Volunteers representing various organizations helped with the cleanups, such as the Lay Lake Homeowners Boat Owners Association, Smith Lake Environmental Preservation Committee, Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy, Weiss Lake Improvement Association and Centre High School’s Leo Club.
Volunteer coordinators reported finding water heaters, waterlogged encapsulated floatation devices, boats, TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, lawn chairs, car tires, garden hoses, jugs, wood debris, Styrofoam and other items.
“I have worked with many of the volunteers for years and they do everything they can to keep our waterways clean,” said Mike Clelland, ROR coordinator for Alabama Power’s Environmental Affairs department. “These cleanups would not happen without the assistance and dedication of our volunteer coordinators.”
Volunteer coordinators and their teams donate their time and labor to make a difference.
Alabama Power Compliance Specialist Andy Foster said it has been a pleasure to be a volunteer coordinator for the ROR E.C. Gaston Plant cleanup at Lay Lake. Foster assumed the role shortly after the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were growing at a steady pace for a while, but the pandemic hurt our numbers. Now we are getting our pre-pandemic numbers back at triple digits. For the past few years, we have averaged about 2 tons of garbage per cleanup,” Foster said.
Volunteers at the Lay Lake (Plant E.C. Gaston) cleanup April 6. (Wynter Byrd / Alabama News Center)
Jim Murphy, ROR coordinator for the Smith Lake Environmental Preservation Committee (SLEPC) and an Alabama Power retiree, may have a small team of volunteers, but they do big things in Cullman County. Murphy has been helping to organize cleanups with SLEPC for nearly 24 years, and he’s not quitting anytime soon.
“We had about 14 people to come out this time, but that didn’t stop us from collecting a whole dumpster full of trash. We look for things that may be a hazard and potentially cause a boating accident. We don’t always get to cover all the Smith Lake shoreline, but it is much better off when we left it than how we found it,” Murphy said.
Judy Jones of the Lay Lake Homeowners and Boat Owners Association has coordinated the shoreline cleanup in association with the ROR program since it began in 2000.
“The success of the program has been due to support from the entire lakeside community, including the counties, local businesses, marinas, church groups and scouts,” Jones said.
ROR volunteers at the Smith Lake (Cullman County) cleanup April 12. (contributed)
Volunteers at the Lay Lake (Coosa River) cleanup April 19. (contributed)
Volunteer coordinator Jim Eason is not afraid to do more than his share of work when it comes to ROR. Eason has volunteered in the Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy (WCSLA) and ROR cleanups for more than a decade. He has served as the president of WCSLA for the past seven years. Community volunteers and volunteers from Bankhead National Forest gathered at Clear Creek for the Smith Lake cleanup.
“I like staying busy and I look forward to these cleanups every spring, and we also have one in the fall. The shoreline we don’t cover in one season, we strive to cover it in the next,” Eason said.
ROR volunteers at the Smith Lake (Winston County) cleanup April 18-19. (Chuck St. John / Alabama News Center)
Matt Adams of the Weiss Lake Improvement Association partnered with 30 student volunteers from Centre High School’s Leo Club at the Bay Springs Marina. On the first day of the cleanup, Clelland and Alabama Power Shoreline Management Team Leader Kadie Nowak took students out to clean the lake in boats. The following day, about 10 community volunteers came for the countywide cleanup.
“Between the students and community volunteers, an entire dumpster was full of trash, including a 15-foot sunken boat that was found in the lake. It was quite a sight to behold. I brought my tractor that had a front-end loader and put it in the dumpster. It is a wonderful day when you can see the community come together for a great cause,” Adams said.
ROR volunteers at the Weiss Lake cleanup April 26-27. (contributed)
After each cleanup, volunteers were treated to a picnic lunch.
Officials are still weighing the amount of trash collected from this month’s effort.
Here are the lake cleanups for May. The Renew Our Rivers schedule is subject to change.
May 4: Lake Mitchell (Coosa River)
Contact: Dale Vann, 205-910-3713
May 11: Lake Jordan (Coosa River)
Contact: Gayla Littlejohn, glittlejohn13@gmail.com
May 14-15: Smith Lake (Walker County)
Contact: Roger Treglown, 205-300-5253
May 17-18: Lake Demopolis (location TBD)
Contact: Jason Arledge, cjarledg@southernco.com
ROR is a national award-winning campaign originated by Alabama Power in 2000. Since its start, more than 131,000 volunteers have removed more than 8,300 tons of trash and debris from rivers, lakes and creeks across four Southeastern states. For the complete schedule, visit apcshorelines.com.
