SAN ANTONIO – The recent heavy rains in the San Antonio area washed out tons of trash from the city’s storm drain system.
Charles Blank with the nonprofit River Aid San Antonio is leading a group of volunteers this weekend to help clean up some of it.
“When a downpour comes like this, this is the result. And it’s tens of thousands, maybe 100,000 pounds of trash and debris that gets swept out of our stormwater into our river,” Blank said, looking over the Espada Dam.
River Aid San Antonio leads groups of volunteers throughout the year cleaning waterways. Blank said everyone in our community can do their part to keep trash out of the San Antonio River.
“What you clean up on your street, you’re saving it from getting here because every street has storm water drains. And guess where all that litter, all the pollutants that get rained down, come down here to our river,” he said.
Near the Espada Dam are bits and pieces of Styrofoam, toys, tires, and lots of plastic bags.
“You will never flick a cigarette in the street again. You will think twice about grabbing that plastic bag from H-E-B. Behaviors change once you really see how bad this problem can get,” he said.
River Aid San Antonio asks volunteers to show up at the Espada Dam between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday. Another clean-up event will follow the next weekend.
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