Volunteers needed for Friends of Pool 9 Mississippi River Clean-Up set for April 23
River clean-up scheduled for April 23 ... Debris collected during the 2021 Friends of Pool 9 river clean-up fills the dumpster located at the Brennan Landing in Lansing. Friends of Pool 9 is scheduling another Mississippi River clean-up for Saturday, April 23. Submitted photo.
The Friends of Pool 9 (FOP9) Directors have scheduled a Pool 9 Mississippi River clean-up for Saturday, April 23. Because of COVID-19 virus concerns there will be no mass meetings of individuals at the Lansing VFW building or elsewhere, as in years past, and there will not be a lunch following.
Lansing volunteers should gather at the waterfront area below the VFW building next to the river to sign the 2022 Friends of Pool 9 Release of Liability form before participating in the event. FOP9 representatives Alex Galema, Bob Henkel, Bruce ReVoir and Mike Conway will be available to hand out garbage bags, gloves and water, and assign collection areas. Directors will also be available at most launch sites in Pool 9 including Big Slough Landing (Lisa Welsh/Jerry Boardman), Black Hawk Park (Ric Zarwell), Ferryville (Larry Quamme/John Mitchell) and Lynxville Landing (Mark Schneden).
The event runs from 8 a.m. to 12 Noon Saturday, April 23. Trash dumpsters will be located at the Lansing Brennan Landing (old Fish Market site), Ferryville City Landing and Black Hawk Park. Debris may be deposited at any of the other landings in Pool 9 and will be loaded and transported to one of the dumpsters. Volunteers with pick-ups trucks will be needed to transport debris.
A group of younger adults will be cleaning the Highway 82 dike under the coordination of Lisa Welsh and Jerry Boardman, with all debris transported to the Lansing dumpster. Special additional assignments will be made to smaller family groups wanting to assist the clean-up effort by cleaning selected channel beach areas and fire rings by boat. They should come to the VFW shoreline and contact Kevin Quillin and Blake Schoh.
Individuals/groups will also be needed to walk/clean the following shoreline areas and should contact Sue English or Christa Hall: Lansing Marina dike, Village Creek Landing, Power Plant State Conservation Park, Army Road access road from New Albin to the Minnesota Slough Landing, Visigers Landing, Cold Springs Landing, Victory Landing, Bad Axe Landing and Genoa Power Plant Landing.
Walkers cleaning those shoreline areas should go to either the Lansing VFW shoreline, Black Hawk Park Army Corps Landing or Ferryville City Landing to get needed items (gloves, bags, water) and complete the Release of Liability form. All volunteers must sign the form and those under 18 years of age must have a parent’s signature as well.
Families should take part in this event and use it as a “teaching moment” for children to become better stewards of the natural resource and learn the value of volunteerism. To date, Friends of Pool 9 volunteers have collected and removed more than 163,000 pounds (81.5 tons) of debris from the river and recorded 9,300 hours of volunteer time to keep Pool 9 clean.
“To collect and clean 90 square miles is a huge task and needs the cooperation of at least 100 volunteers to make it a success,” event coordinators shared. “We thank you for your commitment to keeping our little part of the Mississippi River as clean as possible. In 2021, 100 volunteers collected 12,160 pounds of trash (excluding recycled metal), an average of 122 pounds of debris per person from the Mississippi River. This brings the Friends of Pool 9 total trash removed to more than 163,000 pounds from the river corridor. Let’s do it again April 23.”
