By Kathy LaFrensen
For 35 years, always on the first Saturday in April, over 500 volunteers gather at sites and roadsides along the Blue River to pick up trash and tires.
Those who participate in the Project Blue River Rescue (PBBR) include the Blue River Watershed Coalition and Lakeside Nature Center. It continues to be one of the largest one-day stream team cleanups in the state of Missouri.
Vicki Richmond has been organizing the event for most of those years and scouts out sites with fellow organizer Larry O’Donnell. They focus on finding the worst trashed areas so that the groups of volunteers are placed where most needed.
One of the biggest problems continues to be dumping of tires. Each year a “tire crew” travels the area loading trailers full of dumped tires that are then stacked in a semi-trailer.
There are so many massive dump sites of tires now that the tire crew can’t even get to all of them (pictured). “We think small businesses are dumping the tires instead of disposing of them properly,” says Richmond. “Tires are a renewable resource. Customers are charged a $6 recycling fee but then the business is keeping that money.”
Richmond has noticed improved clean ups over the years. “We’re able to tackle more areas and generations of families are participating,” she says. “But…the fact that we are still having to do this at all speaks to a bigger problem. We have people who think it’s okay to litter and dump illegally.”
She says it’s important to understand the downstream effects of trash in Kansas City’s waterways. “People making small changes goes a long way in keeping our rivers and streams healthy and our roadsides litter free.”
Always report illegal dumping along Blue River Rd to the Jackson County Park Rangers at (816) 503-4890.