LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Cleaning up trash can be time consuming, especially when its thousands of pounds worth in water.
That's the reality for volunteer groups in Little Rock who are trying to keep city parks and waterways in good shape.
After several years, Keep Little Rock Beautiful and Central Arkansas Master Naturalists replaced the trash booms in Fourche Creek to improve trash cleanup.
"Here in Little Rock, we've got about 15 waterways that feed into Fourche Creek and bring 73% of our contents of our storm drains right here into Fourche Creek to spoil it," Norm Berner with Friends of Fourche Creek and Keep Little Rock Beautiful said.
That's why Norm Berner and dozens of other volunteers come to Benny Craig Park to clean the creek every month.
"Most people don't realize that the common street litter items that we have here all over the world harm the environment-- plants, animals, birds, trees, fish, aquatic life, water quality," Berner said.
To help get the litter out, Keep Little Rock Beautiful and Central Arkansas Master Naturalists installed 4 new 50-foot trash booms to replace the old, worn-out ones.
"The floating trash booms that we have lay on top of the water and catch whatever is floating down," he said.
Just a few days after replacing the booms, one of them filled up almost halfway with trash and tree limbs.
Reed Green with Central Arkansas Master Naturalists said the high water this winter and spring put more wear and tear on the old ones.
"They finally just gave way. Not enough duct tape to keep them together," Reed Green with Central Arkansas Master Naturalists said.
He calls this a gamechanger moving forward with keeping the creek clean.
"We know we're going to have good booms for a long time. We hope to get some more upstream to take the pressure off of these because they're going to be more efficient than the old ones. The old ones couldn't keep up with the trash," Green said.
If they didn't have the booms, the trash would keep floating down the creek to the Arkansas River and eventually wind up in the Gulf of Mexico.
"It's a paradox because we got all this beauty. And then we got all this ugly. We want to keep the ugly out," Green said.
Berner explained it takes more than just the trash booms to do that. He encourages everyone to recycle and stop dumping trash into waterways.
"People just don't understand how humans are harming the environment and especially this beautiful wetlands right here in the heart of our city," he said.
If you want to help, you can join volunteers Sat., May 13th at 9 a.m. to clean Fourche Creek at Benny Craig Park.
You can find more information here.