Outdoor Club, 4-H members clean up San Benito River bed
The San Benito High School Outdoor Club partnered with a 4-H
group for its River cleanup Dec. 11.
About 25 students and 10 adults showed up to help clean debris
out of the San Benito River near Hospital Road.
Students got involved after Bill and Nancy Coates, from the
local 4-H chapter, asked the Outdoor Club if they could help with
the cleanups, which happen at least twice a year.
Outdoor Club, 4-H members clean up San Benito River bed
The San Benito High School Outdoor Club partnered with a 4-H group for its River cleanup Dec. 11.
About 25 students and 10 adults showed up to help clean debris out of the San Benito River near Hospital Road.
Students got involved after Bill and Nancy Coates, from the local 4-H chapter, asked the Outdoor Club if they could help with the cleanups, which happen at least twice a year.
Jim Ostdick, who retired but will be working part-time at the high school next semester and is still involved with the Outdoor Club, and Mike Carroll, a chemistry teacher, led the weekend cleanup. Club Advisor Jessica Gautney, a science teacher, also helped with organizing the event.
“The students who regularly participate in the river bed cleanup are very dedicated to the project,” said Gautney, in an e-mail. “They personally see the harm done to the environment by the behaviors of people in our own community.”
She added that the students are learning lessons that will help them become citizens committed to practicing environmentally sound actions, as well as enable them to inform others of the harm done by the careless and illegal actions of people.
Plus, she and Ostdick both noted, the kids do have fun during the cleanup.
In planning the portion of the river to work on, Ostdick said they often talk with the county public works or integrated waste management departments.
“In October, we were alerted by the county of a problem area where construction materials were dumped, near Hospital Road,” Ostdick said. “We discovered an older area, too.”
Through the years of doing the cleanups, Ostdick said it has become rare for students to find a dump site in the riverbed with large items that are purposely disposed of.
“The county has gotten very good at lining the roads to discourage dumping by constructing barricades to discourage it,” Ostdick said.
Instead, most of the items now are materials that get swept into storm drains, such as plastics, food wrappers and children’s toys.
“But there was so much trash left at that site, we need another session to clean it up,” Ostdick said.
The site is on Graniterock property south of Hospital Road. Jim West, of Graniterock, helped arrange for the students to get access to the property and arranged for the piles of trash to be removed to the John Smith Landfill this week.
Ostdick noted that there is a broken barrier at the corner of Hospital Road and Truckee Way, where people presumably drove their trucks past the “no trespassing” and “no dumping” signs.
“The Outdoor Club stands against these illegal activities and urge citizens to respect the law and to protect the source of our drinking water,” Ostdick wrote in an e-mail.
The students and adult volunteers brought materials to the surface, dividing them up by wood, plastic and metal. County public works staff planned to pick up the items early in the week. Other smaller items, such as food wrappers and bits of plastic went into trash bags.
Before each cleanup session, the students get a talk about safety. If they find any type of hazardous waste, such as old oil cans, they are told to call for an adult.
“We try to locate chemical or hazardous waste and try to alert (public works) to that,” Ostdick said. “They come and haul it away.”
Ostdick said another concern the group has is that people use the riverbed for off-road activities.
“It’s a source of drinking water,” Ostdick said. “It causes erosions and prevents plants from taking root. Plants help keep the watershed working like it’s supposed to.”
The Outdoor Club will continue to host cleanups, Ostdick said. The county’s Integrated Waste Management department staff is looking into starting a program where agencies can adopt a portion of the San Benito River to maintain it. Anyone interested in finding out more, can e-mail Ostdick at [email protected].
