The South Platte River got a spring cleaning Sunday as tennis balls, trash and debris were pulled from the banks by a band of volunteers.
The 6 miles of the river through Denver often gets a bad rap for being dirty.
“It’s a sewer, if you ask me, even when the water looks cleaner, you can still see all the trash,” said Steve Edgar, a resident of Denver who walks his two Jack Russell terriers along the river.
The fourth annual South Platte River Cleanup was aiming to remedy that perception.
Dog toys and tennis balls left behind or thrown too far during a game of fetch were among the things that were most often recovered from the river on Sunday.
“We got all kinds of things you wouldn’t imagine end up in the river,” said one of the organizers, Phil Walczynski.
Jeff Shoemaker, executive director of the Greenway Foundation, in partnership with the city of Denver’s Parks and Recreation, is leading other efforts to clean the river.
“We hope over the years to create a zero trash tolerance where someday, trash does not end up in the river,” Shoemaker said.
Visions like those are still in planning stages and face many hurdles, he said.
Especially after Friday’s storm, when a lot more trash around the city ended up in the river.
Trash caused problems on Friday for the the water treatment plant in Denver as water pushed enough trash to block the filters and cause a sewage spill into the river.
Investigations are underway as to how much of an effect the spill had on the river.
The Greenway Foundation’s other plans to clean the South Platte River may not get underway until 2012, said Shoemaker.
Other volunteers who have helped in previous years, however, already notice the river getting cleaner.
“It’s not nearly as dirty as some people think. It’s definitely getting better,” said Peggy Cuciti. “People care more.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1638 or yrobles@denverpost.com