More than 100 volunteers participated in Renewable Water Resources’ Annual River Sweep on Oct. 9.
Approximately 2,880 pounds of trash and debris were removed from the Reedy River and Brushy Creek at ReWa’s Innovation Campus at 560 Mauldin Road in Greenville. Litter was also picked up along a portion of the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail that runs through the campus.
Volunteers at this year’s event consisted of ReWa’s employees and nonprofit partners, including the Friends of the Reedy River and Conestee Nature Preserve.
ReWa has hosted the annual river sweep since the 1990s. The event is held in conjunction with the South Carolina Beach Sweep/River Sweep, organized by the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
“Our job is to clean the water that’s used here across the Upstate of South Carolina, and so we take that as an important responsibility,” said Rebecca West, CEO of ReWa. “This is another way for us to clean our water.”
More than 1,900 pounds of trash were removed at last year’s event. In 2023, volunteers removed 3,060 pounds of debris from the Reedy River and Brushy Creek.
“We tend to get a lot of tires, specifically in the Reedy River, and they are a special kind of cocktail of chemicals and plastics,” said Haley Denison, a watershed and natural resource specialist with ReWa. “We love to pull out the tires because those just continue to degrade the longer they sit in there.”
Denison said the trash that makes its way into the Reedy River and Brushy Creek is often a result of general negligence instead of illegal dumping. Residents are advised to always pick up their trash when outside so that it doesn’t end up in the local waterways.
For more information about ReWa, visit rewaonline.org.
