Local Group Cleans Up City's Rivers

Abigail Frost likes to spend a lot of time by the river, but her time spent there isn't a form of leisure.

Frost founded the “Save the Maumee Grassroots Organization” after her family moved into a house next to the river and was astonished by what she found. The group is dedicated to raising awareness to the pollution problem taking over the city's three rivers.

“I was ready to dump a load of sand down here to go swimming and obviously we can't do that” says Frost.

Plastic bags, soda bottles, concrete poured along the riverbank, even a gas tank: those just some of the things we found while walking along the Maumee River today.

Frost and I even came across two men’s (different) shoes. Frost spotted a tire floating in the river and without a second thought she's in the water to retrieve it. Tires can breed up to 500 mosquitoes every 4 days.

“The Maumee is the largest and longest contributing stream to the great lakes” says Frost.

80-percent of that stream water quality is inherited from the headwaters of the Maumee.

“If it rains a tenth of an inch then the CSO, the combined sewer overflow, discharges into the river” she says.

Twenty-one cities dump into Fort Wayne Rivers before reaching the St. Joe's, the river residents get their drinking water from. There's also many downstream drinking the water from the Maumee, places like Defiance OH and Toledo.

One of the most interesting things she’s found: a ‘Kiss” CD in its original case.

The group will hold their 2^nd Annual “Canoe-Clean UP” tomorrow September 12 from noon-5PM. For more information and how you can take part in the effort head to www.savemaumee.org or call (260)417-2500.