By Mike Isbell
University of Georgia

“We just cleaned this section of the river last year,” I said to
Latisha, Phillip and Alex. “And it’s trashier now than it was
last year.”

I couldn’t believe this Heard County section of the Chattahoochee
River could get so messed up in one year’s time.

But it was.

It was a beautiful Saturday on the banks of the Chattahoochee.
The sky was clear. The air temperature in the 50s, but quickly
warmed into the 60s. It was a shame that the riverbank was so
trashy.

I had on hip waders for the cleanup so I could wade out in the
water to reach the litter the kids couldn’t reach without getting
wet. We hadn’t worked long before Latisha wanted to wear the
waders.

Balls were everywhere

Balls were everywhere. Tennis balls, softballs, soccer balls,
basketballs, even balls from McDonald’s were among the litter
floating or washed up on the banks of the Chattahoochee. “We
picked up 37 tennis balls,” Alex said when I got near him.

I didn’t even begin to count the ones I picked up.

Latisha, Phillip and Alex, 4-H members in Heard County, were
among a larger group of 4-H’ers and parents cleaning a part of
the Chattahoochee River in this year’s statewide “Rivers Alive”
cleanup.

As the river twists and turns on reaching the upper part of West
Point Lake, litter becomes trapped along the bank and against
rocks and trees lying in the water. Barrels, tires,
refrigerators, lawn chairs, propane gas tanks, litter and balls
of all kinds eventually settle somewhere in the river and
lake.

Litter from who-knows-where

Litter constantly floats down the river from who-knows-where. But
since Heard County has no McDonald’s, one thing I can say with a
fair amount of certainty is that those McDonald balls didn’t come
from here.

But you can’t blame all the litter and junk on our upstream
neighbors. Fish-bait containers, bottles, cans, broken lawn
chairs and discarded fishing line litter the ground in areas
where some “sportsmen” fish from the shore.

To keep our rivers and lakes beautiful, the litter has to be
removed. That’s just what this group of 4-H’ers did that
Saturday. They joined thousands of other volunteers from all over
our state in the annual river cleanup.

Last year the seventh and eighth grades from Ephesus School
cleaned a half-mile of riverbank and removed 17 bags of litter, a
few old tires and barrels, a chair, a refrigerator and lots of
balls. This year we removed about 50 bags of litter, several
tires, barrels, chairs and, of course, the balls.

All these kids can see they’re doing something good: helping to
keep our rivers beautiful.