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Allegheny River Clean-up yields nearly 23,000 pounds of metal

Despite losing two water days to Hurricane Florence, the 10th Annual Allegheny River and Conewango Creek Cleanup resulted in close to 23,000 pounds of metal removed from the area.

“‘Ideal’ water levels for the river cleanup are approximately 2,500 cubic feet per second flowing out of Kinzua Dam,” Nate Welker said. “Unfortunately, with Hurricane Florence bearing down on the East Coast, our good friends at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were not able to accommodate that this year.”

With the reservoir level already high, the USACE made the decision Tuesday to increase the outflow to more than four times what the volunteers were hoping for — to 11,000 cubic feet per second.

There was nothing else that could have been done. Keeping the outflow low for the cleanup is a courtesy. The primary job of Kinzua Dam is flood control.

“It was entirely out of their control and ours, but absolutely necessary to ensure the safety of all,” Welker said.

So, the cleanup effort could not have people on the water for two of the work days this year.

“In spite of that, the 143 volunteers who came out in support of this year’s event were still able to make significant progress on improving our watershed,” he said. “In only four days, those hardy souls donated 1,144 hours while removing litter and trash from Pennsylvania’s 2017 River of the Year — the Allegheny — and Pennsylvania’s 2015 River of the Year — Conewango Creek.”

With the high flows, volunteers predictably did not gather nearly as many tires as they had in previous years — 29 compared to a previous low of 93 in 2013. They also didn’t collect as much trash — 15 cubic yards compared to the former low of 26 cubic yards in 2014.

However, the amount of metal collected was more than double most years and about half again the highest previous total. This year, volunteers removed 22,940 pounds of metal. In 2015, 15,258 pounds were taken out.

Unable to take to the water, “we spent two days on an abandoned dump site behind Hatch Patch — a former State Hospital farm,” David Snyder said.

Much of what the volunteers found there was metal.

“Items of interest included several crushed metal corn silos, a 500-gallon oil tank, old farm tools and equipment parts, and several bathroom sinks,” Snyder said.

As always, volunteers found some curiosities in and along the water, including “numerous antique soda bottles and a nine-pin bowling ball,” Welker said.

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