Staff from The Department of Environmental Protection's  Northeast Regional Office got a jumpstart on Earth Day when representatives from 6 of NERO’s 7 programs turned out at 9 a.m. on March 28 to pick up litter between the Wilkes-Barre/Alden exit and the Ashley/Sugar Notch exit of State Route 29 as part of the 2015 Great American Cleanup of PA.

DEP has been cleaning up this heavily traveled-and trashed-section of state highway for over 20 years. 

Even though inmates from a local correctional facility recently picked up a lot of bags of trash there, our crew still made a major impact:  DEP collected 40 bags of trash and 20 tires mixed in with the usual assortment of bottles, cans, and fast food wrappers were “treasures” such as a pocket knife, a pregnancy test (not pregnant), a bootleg Pink Floyd CD, 2 toilets, 2 5-gallon jugs of used motor oil, and enough blue shag rug to cover a small apartment.

Photo From left to right: Norm Frederick of Air Quality, Mary Hastings of Clean Water , NERO Recycling Coordinator Berit Case, Cydney Faul-Halsor of Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields, Hannah Amico, JR Holtsmaster of Waterways and Wetlands, Lauren Amico, Phil Amico of Clean Water, and NERO Regional Director Mike Bedrin from DEP's Northeast Regional Office participate in a cleanup. Not pictured: Geologist Alex Zdzinski and Eric Supey of Environmental Cleanup and Brownfields.

NewsClip: Trash Removed From Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Trail

(Reprinted from the April 2 DEP News, Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

4/6/2015