Cleaning Vermont's Waterways: Hard working crews and recovering from Hurricane Irene

Rozalia Project put 41 people back to work and cleaned over 500,000 pieces of trash from along Lake Champlain and Vermont’s rivers as part of Irene recovery and partnership with the VT Dept. of Labor

Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean’s partnership with Vermont's Department of Labor,  employed 41 long term unemployed or hurricane affected people, during March through November 2012. Rozalia Project’s crews removed trash and hurricane debris from waterways throughout Vermont. Trash in our waterways, has multiple dangers from ingestion, entanglement to leaching toxic chemicals into Vermont's marine environment.

Here are our figures:

• 310.68 miles of Vermont's waterways cleaned
• 503,317 pieces of trash removed
• 88.5 tons of trash removed
• 41 employees put back to work
• 207 volunteers helped clean up 
• 488 clean up locations
• 161 exfoliant beads and resin pellets were found in one 6” by 6” sample at North Beach, Burlington

Locations Cleaned:

• Burlington crews cleaned the shores of Lake Champlain and the Winooski River
• Waterbury crews cleaned the Winooski and Dog Rivers
• Middlebury crews cleaned the Neshobe, Tweed and White Rivers, and southern Lake Champlain
• Randolph and Hartford crews cleaned along the branches and main-stems of the White River in West Braintree, Braintree, Randolph, Royalton, Hancock, Granville, Rochester, Stockbridge, Pittsfield, Bethel, West Hartford, and Hartford.

Vermont's Polluting Dirty Dozen: Thousands of the following items were removed by Rozalia Project’s cleanup crews who recorded every piece of trash recovered.

Food wrappers

Cigarette butts

Exfoliant beads

Building insulation foam

Beverage bottles

Beverage cans

Glass

Plastic bags

Bottle caps

Shotgun shells

Tires

Paper/tissue

Conclusions and Recommendations for a Clean Vermont:

Rozalia Project believes that we can clean Vermont's waterways and keep them clean for future generations to enjoy. We believe that a combination of  physical cleaning and modified practice will achieve Clean Water in Vermont.

Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean would like to see Vermont implement or grow the following programs.

1. Greater number of paired trash and recycling bins in public spaces along Vermont's waterways
2. Beverage bottle/can redemption program
3. Encourage biodegradable forms of exfoliant beads in cosmetics, face and body washes
4. Physical screening to stop exfoliant beads entering our waterways
5. Increased fines for dumping of trash
6. Education program at elementary school level, to the dangers of trash and how to dispose of trash and recycle responsibly
7. Tire recycling program
8. Single stream recycling
9. Hunter education

This program was made possible thanks to partnership with the VT Dept. of Labor and support from the Vermont Community Foundation, Waterwheel Foundation, Ben and Jerry’s Community Actions Teams, Lake Champlain Basin Program, Pomerleau Real Estate and dozens of nonprofit organizations, towns and individuals working very hard to make VT a better place than before the Hurricane.