Volunteering in Your Community on November 8th
Keeping our waterways clean and healthy is a huge effort. Your Clean Water Team at Winyah Rivers Alliance works diligently to ensure swimmable, fishable, drinkable water for everyone but we can not do it alone. Volunteering in your community to help remove trash in our waterways is an excellent way to help. Trash pollutes our rivers and leads to a myriad of environmental problems that include harming wildlife, impeding water flow, and impairing water quality.
During the month of September, the RIVERKEEPER® Adopt-a-Landing Program hosted its fall cleanup initiative to celebrate World Cleanup Month. With help from our dedicated adopters, we were able to organize 17 cleanups throughout the greater Winyah Bay watershed on three different waterways. More than 230 volunteers donated over 720 hours of their time to help remove more than 20,800 pounds of trash from our waterways.
If you missed out and did not get to join a cleanup in September, there is another chance to help us protect our local rivers. On Friday November 8, the South Carolina Floodwater Commission will host the Horry County Service Day from 8:30am – 2:00pm. Cleanup events will be coordinated from regional worksites in Conway, Bucksport, Socastee, and Loris.
The Horry County Service Day will focus on clearing drainage ditches, culverts, canals, streams, and waterways in the area. The work plans include clearing trees, limbs, trash, and debris, and removing accumulated sediment. All work sites except Loris will include watercraft cleanup in the Waccamaw River and adjacent waterways where debris is hindering the free flow of water leading to increased flooding during major storms.
We are making a special appeal for volunteers with boats, both motorized and non-motorized, to help with on-the-water cleanup activities. Those volunteering for water-related cleanup should bring their own boat which must comply with all safety rules and regulations and be equipped with approved life jackets for all on board. Volunteers with motor boats/kayaks can participate by scouring the river edge for litter and debris as well as surveying the rivers for debris to be removed by others. Volunteers can also perform more extensive duties to remove fallen trees and larger debris.
Your clean water team is helping to identify areas of concern in our waterways. We encourage you to let us know of any areas of concern. At this time, we will not be able to remove any derelict vessels but want to focus on areas choked with debris. Please contact your Waccamaw Riverkeeper at riverkeeper@winyahrivers.org or call (843) 349-4007 for information.
Visit https://www.horrycounty.org/serviceday to register to help on Friday, November 8th. Volunteers can sign up for their preferred location and preferred duty (light, medium or heavy). Coordinators will contact you via email outlining specifics for the day, including additional registration details, parking information and other details related to your selected volunteer assignment. You will need to print and sign your waiver and bring it with you to the meetup location on Friday, November 8th.
Join us on Friday, November 8th for the Horry County Service Day to protect our waterways for our families and our future. Register today at https://www.horrycounty.org/serviceday.