Manchester Students Clean-Up Lake Delhi

Nearly a year after the Lake Delhi Dam gave way, the debris and garbage it washed away still lines the Maquoketa River.

When the dam broke last July, it washed away homes, boats and more.

On Wednesday,  seniors from West Delaware High School spent the day clearing away that debris.

If the debris could talk, if would have one heck of a story to tell. But this group of High School seniors are here to twist the plot.

Jordan Helle said, "It's mostly been a lot of wood and a lot of steel sheeting."

The students are in the river, waste deep, plucking and pulling anything they can get their hands on.

Iowa Wildlife Federation's Joe Wilkinson said, "the flood is over but there is still a lot of work to be done."

Helle said, "At first I thought this was going to be really dumb, but really it turned out to be exciting."

Clean-up crews are pulled all kinds of stuff from the river. There are chairs, life jackets, flip flops, even a refrigerator. Most of it will end up in the landfill. But anything that can be recycled, will be.

Wilkinson said, "a lot of it is docks that are partially gone, or even chunks that are in tact. So there are some that can be reused. There are lots of loose individual boards that have floated off. Maybe they can be used for just that."

A new use and hopefully a new story for recovery.

The Iowa Wildlife Federation says the students were able to clean up about two hundred yards along the Maquoketa River.

There is another two miles of that river that still remains saturated with flood debris.