City of OKC seeking volunteers for Oklahoma River trash pick up

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - Just after July 4, you can help keep Oklahoma City clean from the holiday trash build up. The city of Oklahoma City is looking for volunteers for their first ever Oklahoma River Clean Sweep.

Trash and miscellaneous items could be seen filling the end of one of the 27 tributaries to the Oklahoma River Thursday. It’s the type of scene in multiple areas around the river that Oklahoma City Environmental Unit Supervisor Jordan Peebles said they saw after last years July 4 holiday, prompting her to do something.

“My whole career has been, you know, a public servant. And I enjoy helping people and I like making a difference in my community,” Peebles said.

To keep the river flowing clean, she’s forming a team. On July 5 from 8-10 a.m. before the days heat, they’ll walk the banks of the river and pick up trash left behind from the holiday.

“We're going to kind of split our resources,” she said. “So, we're going to have city staff on the north shore along the north area, and then our volunteers are going to be located starting here at Wiley Post (Park).”

It’s part of their volunteer litter collection program that has been in place since 2016. Peebles said she found out other cities around the country average picking up between 9,000 and 11,000 pounds of trash the day after the holiday. That’s about as much as her crews pick up in a year throughout all their events.

“This event could potentially meet that amount in just a couple of hours,” she said.

There are 27 of the tributaries into the river and vessels cleared 300 tons of trash out of them last year alone. The year before, they cleared out 250 tons of trash. Peebles said volunteers can come out and hopefully mitigate that. Peebles even plans to get out on the water with her own kayak to clean up and urges others to do the same.

“We want to make sure that we can get as much out of the water as well as along the shoreline,” she said. “I just I feel at home here in OKC, so I want to give back.”

For more information on the project and how you can sign up, visit this link.