Washington River Festival & Cleanup 2010

James W. Rennick Riverfront Park - Washington, MO
Saturday, April 17th, 2010

Washington is one of the most river-centric towns on the Lower Missouri River. The beautiful park overlooking the river was the ideal place to hold, not just a huge river clean-up, but also a local river festival highlighting the town's connection to the river.

Missouri River Clean-up

218 volunteers gathered together to clean-up 15 miles of the Missouri River. With the help of Missouri Department of Conservation and Washington Boat Club, volunteers were shuttled to locations along the river to gather trash and bring it to shore. From hazardous waste to appliances, plastic bottles to tires, 8.42 tons of trash was removed from the banks of Big Muddy! Washington Parks & Rec. Dept. supplied the landfill dumpster and skid steer for moving trash.

We recycled as much trash as possible. Volunteers sorted each bag of trash from the river, removing aluminum, scrap steel and plastic. Billy Froeschner from Sustain Mizzou brought a horse trailer which was half-filled with plastic (our most common item found on the river) to be turned into landscape timbers by Ryan Enterprises. We filled a dumptruck supplied by Franklin Co. Recycling with metal to be recycled. Bernie Arnold of Stream Team 211 hauled away all the tires to be recycled by Tire Shredders Unlimited. See the impressive Trash Tally at the bottom of this page. Also check out our blog about where all the trash went from this clean-up»

Cleanup by Canoe

The Wyman Center brought 8 canoes and a bunch of volunteers. Big Muddy Adventures brought the massive Clipper Canoe. Several local paddlers rounded out the bunch and cleaned up the stretch of river from Colter's Landing to Washington.

2010 Washington River Festival

Gloria Attoun once again brought together a host of local and regional organizations together at the Rennick pavilion overlooking the river for a day of education, art, music, good food and celebration of the river. See the impressive list on the right for participating organizations, artists, experts and awesome bands! It was all capped off with an old-time dance jam.

River Trash to Art

"Trash is a failure of the imagination", and four area metal sculptors proved it at the Festival. Joey Los, Larry Pogue, Patrick McCarty and Greenway Network teamed up with Cee-Kay Welding to turn trash into treasure. The works of art they created were auctioned off by KDHX radio's Jean Ponzi to raise over $1,200 to support Missouri River Relief. Thanks to everyone that created art and bid on it!

Most of the trash came from our March 6tth Mari-Osa Dump Cleanup, along with items found at the Washington Cleanup.

Trash Tally:

A partial list of items recovered from the Missouri River by volunteers. Our most common items are plastic bottles and bits of styrofoam.

175 large Stream Team bags of trash
84 Tires
7 Refrigerators
1 Washing Machine
1 Large Ice Chest
2 Propane tanks
7 large Chunks o’ Styrofoam (one with a tree growing out of it)
3 Coolers
8 five gallon Plastic Buckets
6 Plastic Tubs
3 five gallon Metal Buckets
6 ½ 55-gallon Metal Drums
1 35-gallon Plastic Barrel
2 Plastic Coffee Pot
4 Boxsprings
1 Couch Frame
1 Bench Seat
4 Metal Chair Frames
4 Plastic Chairs
1 Bed Frame
1 Stove Top in rusted parts
1 6” Plastic Tube
1 Yard Sprayer
1 Light Fixture
1 Porcelain Toilet (in pieces)
1 Car Bumper
1 Car Rim
1 Gas Tank
1 Break Rotor
3 pieces of Carpet
1 Road Cone
1 Toy Slide
1 Hula Hoop
1 Toy Stroller
1 Knee Board
4 sheets of Metal
4 Fence Posts
4” Cast Iron Pipe
2 ft Rail Road Truck
1 syrup coke tank
2 TVs
1 Bug Zapper
1 Computer Monitor
2 Stereos
2 Tarps
2 Wire Rolls
1 large Stop Sign on post
1 Picnic Table
1 Glass Chandelier
1 large antique Light Bulb in a hexagon shape
1 Electric Fireplace
1 Plastic Toy Horse
1 small bag of Poo
1 glass Clorox Bottle