Volunteers pick up one ton of trash in Kentucky River

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Dozens of volunteers met up on Saturday at the Kentucky River to help with clean-up.

The annual river sweep has been a tradition for the past 25 years. After two years of COVID-19, crews were back on the water.

“Unlike many cities, we have a lot of creeks that flow through our city, but we don’t have a river that runs through the middle,” said Jennifer Myatt, Fayette County River Sweep coordinator. “We get to bring people down and they get to see the Kentucky river up close.”

Myatt said the group usually picks up around 1 ton of trash.

“We’ve found lawn furniture, old coolers, pieces of boats, a water heater, one year someone found a message in a bottle,” said Myatt.

One of the volunteers, Bill Walters, said he sees a lot of litter.

“Yes, in the last 10 years it’s a lot more,” said Walters. “People don’t understand. They just throw trash out and don’t think about the water taking it on down to someone else.”

The group picked up 12 miles of the river in an effort to bring cleaner drinking water ashore.

“I like thinking of cleaning up the country, you know? It’s not nice the way people treat everything,” said Walters.

Lexington leaders recently announced that the site of the river clean-up will become a city park.

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