On May 3 volunteers organized by PA CleanWays and PA CleanWays of Cambria County cleaned up over 6.5 tons of trash along Patterson Road in Barr Township, Cambria County.

Eighteen volunteers from the community, including local property owners, BSA Troop 115 from Hastings, Pa, the Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Abandoned Mines, and Barr Township participated in the cleanup.

The group worked throughout the morning bagging daily trash and dragging old carpeting, broken toilets, rotting vehicle seats, mattresses, and construction debris up the slope while trying to avoid decaying deer carcasses and poison ivy as best as possible.

They stopped only to drink water and Gatorade and to get more garbage bags. Several large ‘pockets’ of heavily concentrated dumping were encountered near the top of the road and much time was spent on these as layer upon layer of garbage was revealed.

Barr Township used their large front-end loader to loosen buried debris and to load the collected waste into their dump trucks. Two full-size Mack tandems and one single-axle dump truck were packed tightly and additional waste was staged along the roadside for Monday pickup.

The boy scouts kept the metal scrap separate from the trash and filled three stake-bed trucks for recycling.

Donations from Bi-Lo, Fox’s Pizza, Giant Eagle, and Sheetz helped round out the lunch of pizza, soda, and chips. Laurel Highlands Landfill donated waste disposal and Barr Township not only worked side by side with the volunteers and loaded and hauled the waste, they reinforced an access gate by building up earthen berms to deter dumping off road.

Much progress was made but it will take at least two more cleanups to finish this site. BSA Troop 115 will collect the remaining 50+ tires, which will bring their total to nearly 450 from this site, and also the metal scrap on an ongoing basis until all is recycled.

Funding has been provided by the Richard King Mellon Foundation, Penelec Fund for the Future of Greater Johnstown Fund, the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, and the Robert S. Waters Charitable Trust.

Donations to help in this large-scale cleanup effort are being accepted by PA CleanWays at 105 W. Fourth St., Greensburg, PA, 15601, or toll-free at 1-877-772-3673.

For more information or to volunteer for future cleanups, contact Sue Urchek using the toll-free number at extension 23.

All local residents are being asked to assist with helping maintain the site once it is cleaned by reporting any illegal dumping activity to Mark Stockley at PA CleanWays of Cambria County at 814-472-2120.

5/16/2008