By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

A half-inch of rain Tuesday morning turned Lake Brazos into a parade of water bottles, plastic foam cups, milk jugs, a basketball and a hip flask of Mad Dog 20/20.

At the mouth of Barron’s Branch near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a fountain of trash spewed into the Brazos, where ducks splashed among the debris.

Where does it all come from? Hundreds of places, and hundreds of people who don’t realize the trajectory their castoff Coke bottle or fast-food package will take: down a storm drain, into a creek and into the Brazos, perhaps downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

“If they want to throw trash on the ground, they’re going to have trash in the river,” said Assistant City Manager Joe Mayfield. “I don’t think people are thinking about that when they throw litter. . . . If you drop a Styrofoam cup in a parking lot, it stands a really good chance of going into a creek. It goes in an inlet in a heartbeat.”

City officials say river trash is a serious issue as they attempt to redevelop the Brazos River corridor, and they’re getting serious about stopping it. In a recent survey about the future needs of the Bosque and Brazos River corridor, 519 of the 672 respondents listed trash removal as the biggest priority.

The Waco Parks and Recreation Department recently got funding to buy two floating frames with dangling nets to strain trash out of Barron’s Branch and another creek before it gets into the river. The system will be installed in this budget year, officials said.

City Manager Larry Groth is in discussions with Sheriff Larry Lynch about using inmate labor to pick up river trash routinely. Groth said city officials even have discussed buying a trash-skimming boat.

Economic benefits

Groth said cleaning the river is an economic development issue.

“It’s critical, not only when things develop but in the developmental stage, to encourage people to develop,” he said.

Keep Waco Beautiful already organizes yearly volunteer trash collection days on the Brazos, including the one Nov. 22 that is expected to attract 300 volunteers.

KWB executive director Sherri Street said the yearly pickups help, but they aren’t enough if the community is serious about making the Brazos a recreation and leisure destination.

“Ultimately, the price tag is the loss of business moving to our community,” Street said. “When the chamber of commerce takes someone down there to see our beautiful river, and there’s trash on it, no one’s going to want to develop cafes or restaurants down there if the river looks yucky.”

She said changing people’s littering habits will take time, but that’s the long-term solution.

“We can clean up, and the sheriff’s department can clean up, but it’s got to stop at the source,” she said. “People have got to stop littering.”

Stopping trash’s spread

In the meantime, the city is at least hoping to strain out the trash before it spreads out into the river.

Burck Tollett, city parks superintendent, said Barron’s Branch is the most obvious place to begin. It collects storm-water runoff — and floating trash — from a wide swath of North Waco all the way to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center.

Tollett said he is talking to a Florida company that makes the “Watergoat,” a floating plastic trash trap that could be placed at the end of Barron’s Branch. The trash then would be scooped out with a skimmer.

“It’s relatively economical, at $5,000 to $10,000,” Tollett said.

Another Watergoat might be placed on a storm drain that empties from East Waco at the Herring Avenue bridge.

The biggest creek in town, Waco Creek, is diverted through a huge tunnel and enters the Brazos near Interstate 35, far below the surface. Groth said that’s a major entry point for trash, but he doesn’t believe the Watergoat system will work there.

Groth said getting trash out of the river is never cheap, and no system can remove it all.

“The No. 1 thing that would help us is if people would dispose of trash properly,” he said. “It’s not only unsightly, it’s expensive, and it takes tax money to clean that up. . . . There’s no reason in the day and age of environmental consciousness that people should be throwing trash down.”

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752

* * *

Lake Brazos cleanup

What: Keep Waco Beautiful and the Waco Parks and Recreation Department are seeking volunteers for the annual trash pickup day on the Brazos.

When: 1 to 4 p.m. Nov. 22; registration starts at 12:30 p.m. Hot dog lunch provided.

Where: Brazos Belle landing, 33 Interstate 35.

How: Gloves, trash bags and trash pickers provided. Some groups will travel by boat.

Questions: Call Keep Waco Beautiful at 750-5728.