BLOOMINGTON – Indiana University’s Campus River, which feeds into the White River, is a vital natural resource for the Bloomington campus and surrounding community, but it faces the threat of pollution from litter and waste. An upcoming volunteer event is intended to help fight this problem.
The Campus River cleanup initiative will take place from 10 a.m. until noon on Friday, April 14. Anybody is eligible to participate, and volunteers are asked to register on the event information page.
The Indiana Department of Environmental Management requires IU Bloomington to perform a litter cleanup annually to prevent unwanted debris from polluting the White River.
Michael Dorsett, the environmental permit coordinator for IU Environmental Health & Safety, said littering is an ongoing issue on the Bloomington campus.
“The IUB campus deals with the issue of littering daily and spends many hours per year picking up what people throw away,” he said.
Most of the trash goes unnoticed because it is collected in the early morning before the campus becomes busy with pedestrians. Dorsett said that if the litter ends up in the Campus River, it can disrupt the animal and plant life that thrives there.
The river collects litter that the wind may have blown in or that flowed downstream from the source waters, Valenzuela said. While the university’s grounds crews frequently pick up trash in and along the Campus River, large spring rain events often dislodge and deposit more debris in the river.
“Having the additional help of this initiative will help the university do a deep and thorough cleaning of the stream channel,” said Tristan Johnson, the horticulture manager and landscape architect at IU’s Landscape Services and Facility Operations.
Information: https://today.iu.edu/.
