Thanks to Program Director Loyd Funkhouser for hooking us up with that great speaker last night and to Chris Fitzpatrick for coming to speak to us.

I had no idea that this type of money and organization was available to help us with our litter situation along our creeks.

I would like to see all the contact information Chris mentioned last night available on our newly restored website [surfbwa.org] (thanks to all those who worked at getting the website back up)

I would also like to see all that contact information Chris mentioned last night be posted on this forum, again and again, to remind us that we have help in this overwhelming task.

I'm desperately hoping to get the chance to start documenting the dozens of dumps and heavily littered spots we paddle past when we're lucky enough to get to go paddling. I wanna start today. :-)

I see last nights speaker as a turning point in our quest for cleaner creeks in the area.

I envision many of these cleanup efforts to resemble the dump cleanup at the Elkhorn this past spring and Russ Millers Red River project, in which a bunch of trash that is strewn through an area is piled together to be removed later. These caches of trash should then qualify as dump sites, which then will be removed by the means described by Chris last night.

Wavey Dave Lafferty has offered to help get things going in Jessamine County. The Hickman Creek area is beautiful... but spoiled by a depressingly impressive amount of dumped crap.

The first place on Hickman creek that would be an easy target would be at the upper park and play spot located just upstream of Elm Fork Road along John Watts road. This nice little surf wave/hole would be a great place to hang out, except that bank is so covered with trash that it is almost dangerous. The usual trash is there, as well as larger dumped stuff including, but not limited to broken bathroom fixtures, rusted car & farm equipment parts, etc...

Actually, this section along John Watts road may qualify for the program Chris referred to last night that deals with litter along roads. That would make it pretty easy for us. :-)

Could somebody post the contact information Chris referred to last night?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/12/2008 03:32PM by acreekfreak.

Great idea.

here is the main page to the State's site...with Chris' contact info on the bottom. i dont have my handout with me, but this is a good start...

[www.waste.ky.gov]

I second the kudos for Lloyd arranging last night's speaker whose name was:

Chris Fitzpatrick
Branch Manager, Dept. for Environmental Protection
Div. of Waste Management: 502-564-6716
email: chris.fitzpatrick@ky.gov

Speaking of the Muddy Creek cleanup...

One active illegal dump site on Muddy Creek that should be documented and pointed out is on Weddles Mill Road. Old schoolers will remember this as the old takeout at Doylesville. This gravel road runs upstream from Doylesville to a field where we used to park when running the Muddy. When you're almost to the old parking area, you'll drive around a sharp little curve and to your left is a gully that is full of dumped trash. This dump site is probably too large for the current Muddy Creek clean up plans, but it's a natural for the program that Chris spoke of last night.

Good idea Dale but I'm I'm pretty sure that site on the Muddy is already being cleaned up via the SWM and the FOMC. I'll check with Tom Edwards and confirm.

Meanwhile, If we want to look into expanding our cleanup efforts on local "unloved" streams, then in Madco alone there are massive jobs left to be done on Tates and the Otters. The BWA actually did a giant cleanup on Tates back in the early 90s. I remember it as one of the most exhausting cleanups I have ever participated in - even more so than the Red. I also almost destroyed the bed of my pickup transporting the massive amounts of trash to the dumpsters that the Madco solid waste coordinator Sally Mathers had arranged for us...
barryg

Excellent.

I had heard that the Meddles Mill dump had been reported repeatedly for years, but I had not heard of any action there. That's good to hear.

There's no shortage of trash on the streams that we paddle... just imagine all the trash hiding on the streams and feeders that we don't paddle.

Let's start getting these dumps documented and get them cleaned up.

Thanks again to Loyd and Chris.

I remember one high water Tates Creek day (we had to wait for the level to drop) that we collected dozens of "Big Ky Ducks" floating in the eddies. Someone really liked Diet Big K that lived/worked upstream. I'm glad I stuck with it in that huge rodeo hole that d6 pointed me into, otherwise it would have been difficult to get out of my boat. Maybe the extra contained boyancy helped me out!

Don't be shy about picking up from your boats too! Just be safe about it.

Dustin

Dustin Anderson

I scanned the solid waste coordinator and county judge executive contact list in yesterday. The files go well over the 614.4 kb max. I could break them up into individual files. I’ll do that when I get some free time. Really I could just email to those who want a copy of it. Right now who wants a copy? Email me: dclmdr@yahoo.com

Ledgeman

Another idea would be to put this information on our website. Who do I email, Russel? What's his email?

Ledgeman

The one concern I had with this program is what happens to the landowner if we report a dump site. The potential for enforcement with fines and sanctions could lead to disgruntled landowners. Anyone else have a concern about this? My hope would be that when we find a dumpsite that we want to cleanup that we go talk to the landowner and let him know our intentions to help. Especially in any cases where the putin/takeout might be at risk.

I have another dumpsite.....Shanty Hill Creek, one many of you may not have heard about. It is a creek out Harrodsburg Rd., hang a right at the Wilmore fork and head down the hill towards the 'brooklyn bridge'. The banks of this creek are easy access to the main road, its short, and its littered with trash...anything from washing machines to tons and tons of bottles and cans.