It seems like the rain is winning these days, but local litter traps are fighting back.
Heavy rainfall is causing major overflows. Litter traps like the ones on Dog River and Eslava Creek are catching the loose garbage.
Mobile has experienced downpours every day this week… disrupting litter and causing it to float downstream.
The Osprey Initiative, LLC has been working overtime. In fact, President Don Bates earned his nickname “The Litter Gitter” because of the time he’s spent reducing polluted waterways.
“We’ve been out,” said Bates. “We’ve actually brought in some folks from Birmingham this past week.”
“It’s pretty much full-time and our plan is for the next month to catch up on the rain that we’ve had. We need it to stop so we can get started.”
Bates says the amount of rain seems unusual compared to other years.
“It’s bizarre. Somebody said somewhere in Mobile County over the last month it’s rained 24 days straight,” added Bates. “By this time of year, we’re usually starting to dry up, we’re more thinking about a hurricane around, and for this just to set in- I think we’re 60% chance for the next 10 days, so it’s just kind of rain event.”
Others have to agree with Bates… the rain is simply unbearable.
“We’ve had too much here… I mean, we’re floating,” said one local man.
The rain is affecting more than just litter clean up… it’s hurting truck drivers, too. Fox10 News spoke to one driver about how the rain is affecting his daily job duties.
“I’m a truck driver, we do a lot of tarping during the rains so it’s been real wet with a lot of dangerous roads,” he said.
Bates encourages community members to pick up litter and do their part, especially during rainy seasons.
“If people can watch what is around them and pick up that piece of litter when they’re getting out at a restaurant, that litter is going to the water so if you can get that we can all do a lot.”
“Litter is a one-piece-at-a-time problem and a one-piece at a time solution.”
This story originally aired on FOX10 News by Ashlyn Nichols. You can view and read the original story here.
