 "Photo: Ramona Flume")
Students found mattress springs, beer cans and plastic bags in Waller Creek during a two-hour cleanup Saturday that began at the intersection of 24th Street and San Jacinto Boulevard.
The Texas Natural Science Center and Environmental Health and Safety sponsored the UT Waller Creek Cleanup.
With black trash bags and buckets in hand, about 160 volunteers divided into groups of six and scattered to different assigned areas along a two-mile stretch between 30th and 15th streets. The cleanup takes place once each semester.
Event Coordinator Michele Hallahan said 239 volunteers participated in the fall, but she limited the number of volunteers this year and closed registration at 186 to keep the event's organization less chaotic.
"It's great and encouraging that so many people want to come," she said. "Most of the time we get people who are new, but there are always a few who have done it before."
Hallahan said the organization spends around $600 to pay for gloves for the volutneers, environmental health and safety members to oversee the cleanup and facility services to pick up the collected trash. Sponsors like Keep Austin Beautiful and Einstein Bros. Bagels donate cleaning materials and food. Chipotle gave 200 burritos to support the volunteers in their cleanup efforts.
Volunteers have collected items such as mattress frames, plastic bags and scrap metal, which Hallahan said is a common item. They tend to find 100 pounds of metal at each event.
"I suppose student parties and football games are responsible for a lot of the trash," she said.
This year's cleanup also included a new task: an invasive-plant removal project that involved taking out any plants that are not native to the ecosystem. Hallahan said the plants invade the area when seeds fall into the creek from upstream and embed themselves into the soil, growing while preventing other native plants from developing.
"These plants don't promote habitat for insects and birds, so we're pulling them out and trying to encourage wildlife growth," she said.
Hallahan said the creek's environment has improved since the event started five years ago.
"The first time, they pulled out 1,000 pounds of trash," she said. "Now we pull about 50 to 60 bags of trash."
Aerospace engineering junior Brian Denman, who walks by the area on his way to class, said he always notices the amount of trash in the creek.
"I see trash in the creek a lot, and it bothers me," Denman said. "I think whenever it rains and floods, it's the first place the trash accumulates."
Pharmacy sophomore Michelle LoTuico, who belongs to a service sorority, said the cleanup itself was not strenuous but that it was more work climbing around areas to reach the trash. LoTuico and another member of her sorority, biology junior Kenda Mitchusson, said they thought the event was fun, and they enjoyed looking around at the wildlife.
"I'm from a really small ranch and I grew up in the country, so this brings me back," Mitchusson said. "It's neat to see all the wildlife, and it's all here on campus. There are a couple of raccoons and ducks that live here, and they're really cute."
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