Montgomery County CD Participates in Two Earth Day Cleanups
by Krista Scheirer, Watershed Specialist
In honor of Earth Day, Montgomery County Conservation District staff got their hands dirty
picking up litter and debris at two stream cleanup events to improve the Schuylkill River.
On April 10, five staff members took part in the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy’s annual
Stream Cleanup, a 500-plus volunteer event which seeks to clean streams and raise awareness of
litter in our waterways. In total, volunteers removed 484 bags of trash and recyclables from 44
sites, and they collected 102 tires and more than a ton of scrap metal.
During the cleanup, district staff were sent to a preserved property along a tributary to Skippack
Creek, where they discovered an old dump site and removed items from along the road, such as
tires, car parts, road signs, electric cable, and hundreds of glass bottles and aluminum cans. They
also found a discarded jar of gasoline and piles of improperly dumped yard waste.
These finds indicate that litter and illegal dumping continue to be a huge hurdle for our
waterways. Not only is trash- especially hazardous waste- harmful to wildlife and the quality of
our drinking water resources, dumping yard waste can spread exotic weed seeds that can invade
natural areas and destroy ecosystems.
MCCD urges residents to turn to the recycling pages of Montgomery County’s website for
proper disposal methods, and for household hazardous waste and tire collection events.
On May 2, MCCD also partnered with members of the Schuylkill Action Network and the Upper
Merion Township EAC to host a stream cleanup in the mall area of King of Prussia. More than
50 volunteers worked to clean at three sites along Crow Creek and a tributary to Trout Run.
They removed four tires, two shopping carts, two car batteries, and other scrap for recycling, as
well as 70 bags of trash to be disposed of by Advanced Disposal, who donated dumpster services
in support of the event.
All supplies for volunteers were provided by Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., and through the Great
American Cleanup of PA, sponsored by Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.
Both cleanups were part of the Schuylkill Scrub, a cleanup initiative running from March 1 to
May 31 throughout the entire Schuylkill watershed. Last year, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful
logged over 52,000 volunteers in the five counties surrounding the Schuylkill River. Together,
they removed more than 1,300 tons of trash that would have otherwise washed into the
Schuylkill River. For more information, see SchuylkillScrub.org.
Resource Conservationist Cody Schmoyer, District Manager Gus Meyer, and Ag Conservation Specialist
Jessica Moldofsky (left to right) posing with the staff’s finds during the Perkiomen Watershed Stream
Cleanup on April 10.
Watershed Specialist Krista Scheirer (far left) and volunteers at the King of Prussia Cleanup on May 2.