cleanrivers.ca
cleanrivers.ca

This Sunday is World Rivers Day.
Chris Gadsen with the Chilliwack-Vedder River Cleanup Society says once again, they have another big cleanup event planned.

“We’ll be assembling at the Chilliwack Fish and Game Club on Chilliwack Lake Rd.  Registration is between 8:30 and 9:30am….volunteers will be assigned groups and areas to go to clean up.  We ask them to be back around noon, and we have a free BBQ for them.”

It’s become a major event…in addition to the BBQ, there will also be live entertainment for the volunteers and educational activities for the kids. The last cleanup in April saw 175 people come out to help. Since 2002 when the society formed, they’ve taken 100 metric tonnes of garbage off the riverbank.  Gadsen says he’s disappointed people still feel it’s OK to dump there garbage, but he’s heartened by the difference the volunteers have been making.

“We have made a difference…we notice there’s not as much material left behind, but there are still a lot of careless users of the river watershed who don’t seem to care about it and then there’s a lot of garbage related to criminal activity that is dumped.  Just right now actually, as we do this interview I’m sitting on a couch that someone has dumped here!”

He says their work with the group Fraser Riverkeeper to set up signs reminding people to call the RAPP line when they see illegal dumping is going to help a bit, but raising awareness and promoting education on the issue is important.