'Sweep' Event Cleans Up Roswell's Portion of the River

It was a crazy idea that caused Kevin McGrath with the Upper Chattahoochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited to approach Tammy Bates, Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (UCR) events and outreach director, and Dave Thomas, National Park Service coordinator, during a paddle clean up with an idea to try and clean the entire stretch of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area–all 48 miles of it.

“We’ve all hosted individual cleanups over the years, but never considered tackling it all on one day,” said Bates.

Still, crazy ideas are usually the best and the “Sweep the ‘Hooch’” event from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 16 is the result.

“With our combined efforts, we knew it could be possible. And so we began planning and planning. And now it looks like we’ll have over 400 volunteers on April 16,” Bates said.

Despite being the inaugural event, the push to sign up volunteers was successful. The group reached volunteer capacity nearly two weeks in advance of Saturday’s event.

“Through word of mouth alone and our combined efforts, the word spread quickly,” said Bates. “We were enormously pleased at the turnout of support and can only anticipate that this event will grow even bigger in 2012.”

There are currently 19 sites that will be a part of the far-reaching event, including Vickery Creek and Azalea Drive areas in Roswell. In order to remove all trash and debris from the river, volunteers will be given three different assignments depending upon the site. Some sites will have people walking the trails to pick up trash and remove invasive plants, some will have them wading into shallow water along the river banks and some will use kayaks and canoes to paddle through deeper water in sections of three to eight miles.

While this particular event is definitely unique, the organization–which is one of the many to host group paddle trips down the famous river throughout the year–is constantly working to preserve the Chattahoochee River for Atlantans.

“When you consider that there is a federal decision that is forcing a deadline to settle the tri-state water war and that our watershed is one of the smallest in the nation for such a large population to serve and that the rapid development around Atlanta constantly challenges the environmental, recreational and even economic health of the river, UCR is more necessary than ever,” said David Lee Simmons, communications director for the organization. “As the only watchdog for this part of the river, UCR is constantly protecting the health of the Chattahoochee and it’s events like these that help ensure clean water for everyone.”

Anyone can help protect the river by reporting problems to the UCR.

And Bates encourages everyone to sign up for future UCR cleanup events by visiting the Web site.