07/11/2005

Boston Courant

Groups Cleaning Up Famous Dirty Water

By Daniel Friedman, Courant News Writer

    Hours after the last fireworks exploded over the Charles River last week, Tom Hosker pulled a beach chair from the water near the Hatch Shell.

    The chair was one of thousands of pieces of debris snared by two privately funded boats cleaning up after the city's Fourth of July celebration.

    Hosker works for Boston Line and Service, a private company contracted by the Boston Harbor Association (BHA) to pluck debris from locations around Boston Harbor.  The company's two-person boat has picked up more than 170 tons of material since 1999, according to the BHA.  The vessel cleans the Charles after events along the Esplanade, BHA Consultant Sarah Kelly said.

    Removing the debris makes the water safer for swimmers and boaters and protects marine life, according to the BHA.

    For Tom McNichol, however, the garbage is personal.  A retiree who keeps a sailboat on the Charles, McNichol said that frustration with litter in the river led him to found the Charles River Cleanup Boat, which is both a nonprofit organization and a 17 foot vessel, last summer.

    "The same trash just floated back and forth," he noted.  "I kept seeing the same soda bottle, condom, and plastic bag floating by."

    McNichol's boat has no connection to the BHA's craft.  He noted that he sees the Harbor Association boat on the Charles only immediately after July 4, while his skiff is on the river three or four days a week.

    On July 5 McNichol and frequent volunteer Robert Canterbury found liquor bottles, a piece of chicken, soda cans, unopened beers, a bottle of Ralph Lauren cologne, a large piece of rooming material, wrappers, plastic bags, condoms and hundreds of pieces of cardboard used to case fireworks.

    Cleanup Boat operators have previously found an overstuffed chair, a Porta Potti, a newspaper box and a dead body.  Last week, however, McNichol was particularly concerned about four bags full of Styrofoam pellets he had found a few days earlier.  "Can you imagine the mess if those had broken open?" he asked.

    After rain storms, which flush trash from storm drains into the river, or after events on the esplanade, it may take the boat five days to complete its circuit from Watertown to near the base of the Leonard Zakim Bridge, McNichol said.  Once that is cleaned, however, the trash stabilizes and the boat completes the circuit in one day, accumulating about two bags of debris each trip.

    "The theory was that if you started to clean it you could get (trash) out faster thank it goes in," he noted.  "We've found that's true...Once you get it clean, it's easy to keep it clean.

    Cindy Brown, general manager of Boston Duck Tours, the Cleanup Boat's largest sponsor, said the vessel has improved the river's appearance.  "Our drivers who are out there notice that it's much cleaner." she said.

    The boat gets funding from boat clubs, hotels, nonprofits, universities and state and city agencies.  With hefty insurance costs, however, dollars remain tight.  McNichol expressed disappointment that some institutions benefiting from the boat's work do not offer support.  "Harvard University has three boathouses on the river and they won't give us anything," he said.

    If money is limited, though, gratitude can be plentiful.  Many passing boaters thank the Cleanup Boat's occupants.

    "Great job guys," yelled one woman last week.  "Thank you for cleaning our river."

    The Cleanup Boat has four regular operators but relies on volunteers who sign up at www.cleanupboat.org  Because the work consists of picking up trash with a pool cleaner, McNichol noted, anyone can volunteer and immediately work efficiently.

    "People usually have a good time, " he said.  "If it gets hot or the thunderclouds build, we go in.

    "When you go back up the river at the end of the day, and you're tired, it's nice to look around and see a perfectly clean river and know you helped achieve that.