Kudos to Iowa Project AWARE

The Insight page features a lot of commentary on the sad state of Iowa’s environment and the drumbeat of bad news spawned by pollution. But today, we’re commenting on some good news.

This week, The Gazette’s Erin Jordan chronicled Iowa Project AWARE, which will be collecting trash from a 65-mile stretch of the middle Iowa River, between Marshalltown and Belle Plaine. It’s the 20th year the volunteer group has launched its canoes into rivers across the state to remove all matter of debris.

More than 200 people have volunteered for this year’s cleanup, running from July 9 to 14. The Tama County Landfill will take trash and recyclables collected on the route. The Linn County Solid Waste Agency has agreed to take collected glass and the project is working with scrap metal haulers.

What started as a cleanup on the Maquoketa River in 2003 has visited rivers all over the state, including the Cedar, Wapsipinicon, Little Turkey, Turkey and Volga rivers among others in the central and western parts of the state. During its 20 years of work, more than 5,900 volunteers have cleaned up 1,371 river miles and removed 958,121 pounds of trash, according to the project’s website. Eighty-one percent of that trash was recycled.

Last year, Project AWARE held its annual cleanup on the West Fork of the Des Moines River. Among their finds were car parts and locker filled with rotten meat.

Events like this cleanup show there are Iowans who care deeply about our rivers and streams and are willing put sweat equity into their recovery. Hopefully, work such as this will inspire other Iowans to lend a hand or many hands to the uphill task of improving water quality in Iowa. The project website says it’s inspired or advised 50 other cleanup efforts.

It would also be great if these 200 volunteers could inspire 150 state lawmakers and the governor to take meaningful action to clean up Iowa’s waterways. Picking up litter isn't a partisan issue. Both parties should be committed to meaningful and measureable goals.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com