by Gracie Kayko, Environmental Journalism Intern
Watershed Management Group’s River Run Network hosted its last trash pickup of the spring on May 22nd at Santa Cruz River at Irvington Road. A group of 10 volunteers, newcomers and returners, helped fill eight, construction grade, trash bags for Pima County to come pickup and dispose of.
The trash picked up in the river varied from plastic bags, wrappers, clothing, to even shopping carts. The volunteers spread out, staying where the RRN got licensed to pick up trash, and clean up the river for an hour.
As the sun started to set, the group wrapped up their trash pick and headed about a quarter mile north up the Santa Cruz River trail. There, the group was able to see the Irvington Outfalls, a vibrant flow of water, produced by the Tucson Airport Remediation Project (TARP). The flow is a result of TARP releasing clean, recycled water into the Santa Cruz River.
RRN has been doing trash clean ups since 2016 when the program was founded. The effort of “Let’s Clean Up Our Rivers” was started by Andrea Troyer, a former intern, in 2022.
While the RRN has done trash pick ups all over the city, their focus is on the Rillito River, Pantano Creek, and the Santa Cruz River.
Thousands of pounds of trash float down the rivers of Tucson each year, so by hosting these pick ups the RRN can help decrease that amount and make Tucson’s rivers “a cleaner, and greener place,” Lauren Knight, WMG’s program manager of the River Run Network, said.
Karla Candelaria, a WMG docent, was one of the volunteers who helped the RRN clean up the Santa Cruz River. “It’s easy to be completely overwhelmed by the news of all the problems facing the environment, but cleaning up garbage in the rivers is a concrete, tangible action to support the community,” she said.
Karla, after five years of volunteering, keeps coming back to help WMG and the RRN reach their goals, and she has fun doing it too. “While we’re working, it’s fun to chat with like-minded people who aren’t afraid to do a little dirty work to make things better for everyone,” she said.