Mari-Osa Dump Cleanup 2008

Saturday, March 1 - March 2, 2008
Mari-Osa Public Access on the Osage River

On March 1-2, we took on a special project. With the help of 94 volunteers, we took a massive chunk out of a decades-old dumpsite spilling into the Osage River just upstream of the Mari-Osa Delta. Crews spent a day and a half pulling 18.7 tons of junk from the base of that dump. We didn’t get it all, but I think the momentum to make it all disappear has begun.

Our friend, Jeff Finley of the US Fish and Wildlife service, pointed the dump out to us. He’d driven his shoalrunner by that dump a hundred times but one day the thought came to him, “Somebody ought to do something about that.” Then he realized ... he knew just the right folks.

Once we started calling around, Skip Jenkins, who lives right down there, let us know that not only would he help out, he had a bunch of folks called the “Osage River Navy” that were going to pitch in. They proved to be the perfect hosts and hostesses, feeding us, fixing one of our boats and working hard all day long.

A lot of friends from other Stream Teams, the Department of Conservation, the Department of Natural Resources, the Fish & Wildlife Service, the National Guard, folks that’d helped on other clean-ups and family came out to help. At the last minute, Jarad Milligan from MDC brought a boat and hauled trash in its bow all morning. People who’d seen the dump for years and saw the clean-up in the paper came out. Folks whose grandparents used that dump wanted to help. As soon as we had a boat full of volunteers, they started tearing into the pile. The first boat full of appliances came rolling in to the ramp before the last boat of volunteers went out.

After a morning of hauling junk, we had to call in two more scrap metal dumpsters (thank you Harold from Galamba for working overtime bringing those out!) to hold the trash stash. We took a group photo in front of one brimming dumpster and headed out for more.

The nicest thing about a clean-up like this is at the end of the day, the people that did it can see a huge difference. The bottom of that dump pile melted away. They just made their river a better place and every time they go by it in a boat, they’ll remember it.