Taking trash out: New litter boom to help clean water near Erie Water Works storm outfall
During Drinking Water Week from May 4-10, Erie Water Works and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful teamed up to take a cleaning initiative and install a 50-foot water litter boom at the Myrtle Street outfall.
A litter boom is a large floating barrier designed to prevent litter from continuing downstream.
The litter boom was installed May 8 at a storm outfall next to the Erie Water Works station. This storm outfall leads out to Lake Erie and the Presque Isle Bay area.
"It's the proximity to our location," Craig Palmer, CEO of Erie Water Works said. "It's on our property and it's important to us that we're being leaders and leading by example, because if we're not doing it, who else is doing it? We need to be more intentional and more thoughtful. We can't just talk the talk, we have to walk the walk."
The recently installed litter boom was just beginning to collect some refuse, mostly environmental items such as weeds and algae. Also on May 8, staff at Erie Water Works were out cleaning up the bay area around the Erie Water Works location.
Staff members and volunteers dragged multiple pollutants from the bay area, including small mattresses, tires and bags of trash.
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When participating in cleanups around Pennsylvania, Don Benczkowski, program coordinator from Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, says that the most common item they clean up is cigarette butts.
"They are all over the place," Benczkowski said, adding that he wished people would keep the cigarette buts in their vehicles or dispose of them properly. "One (cigarette) butt adds up to 60,000, which is what we found during an international clean up."
Having a partner with Erie Water Works is something that Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful depends on for the environment.
"For Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, we're dependent on volunteers and partnerships like Erie Water Works where they want to take part in making sure our local environment is clean and safe," Benczkowski said. "Erie Water Works is supplying clean drinking water to us, so it's extremely important in this area. ... They supply clean drinking water to over 200,000 people in this area, so if we can catch litter before it goes into the water here and various other locations, that's good for the environment."
The litter boom installation was one event that Erie Water Works held to celebrate Drinking Water Week.
Palmer said that Erie Water Works has unveiled a new water fountain in their lobby to raise awareness for drinking water and refillable water bottles.
"We're going to be branding water fountains throughout the community to get the word out about drinking water," Palmer said. "Many people have doubts about tap water and some people turn to bottle water, thinking it's cleaner. I can assure you that it's not. It's not economical; tap water is less than a penny a gallon and the cheapest bottle of water is over 250 times more expensive."
Palmer championed the benefits of tap water, saying it's not only economically smarter but safer for the environment.
"When you consider the environmental impacts of the water bottle, 60 million are going out every day and less than 15% are being recycled," Palmer said.
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Palmer also mentioned that Erie Water Works meets all federal and state drinking standards.
"Every drop stands for consumption," Palmer said.
Contact Nicholas Sorensen at nsorensen@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: New litter boom installation near Lake Erie to help capture pollution
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