Tag Archives: stream trash

TTF Trash Task Force: In-Stream Trash Trap Videos

To help comply with the Anacostia River Trash Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), the Washington DC Department of Environment (DDOE) has installed two floating trash traps in the Anacostia Watershed (link).

Here is a short video showing the Bandalong trash trap in operation.

Video 1

This in-stream device is effective in trapping floatable materials like plastic bottles, styrofoam cups and plastic bags floating on the water surface.

The DDOE contracts with non-profit organizations like Groundwork Anacostia  and Earth Conservation Corp to have the trash baskets cleaned manually.  Here’ a short video of Earth Conservation Corp participants leaning DDOE the trash trap.


DC’s in-stream trash trap approach could help right here in the  TTF Watershed. It could reduce the trash load on Tacony Creek Park and  provide a hands-on litter – stream trash learning opportunity for Philadelphia residents.

DC’s in-stream trap cleanup is much more efficient because than sending volunteers out to cleanup s  a few times a year. Since the trash is trapped in a single basket rather than being spread over acres of streambank and floodplain, the cleanup effort is much more effective than the current TTF watershed cleanup efforts. For the same investment of volunteer effort, we could get a lot more trash with an in-stream trash trap.

The young ECC  cleaners are both contributing to cleaning up the Anacostia River and learning about the consequences of litter/ illegal dumping. They will have a lot to tell their fiends about why they should not litter/ dump trash. This is both an educational training – outreach effort and a cleanup effort.

Here are links to 2 presentations on the DDOE’s  in-stream trash trap efforts.

Upper Rock Creek Trash Photo Survey

Upper Rock Creek is a tributary of the Tookany Creek that carries stream  flow from the Creek headwaters, including Cedarbrook Plaza and  Cheltenham Mall parking lots and  businesses along W Cheltenham Ave and Ogontz Ave.  During rain storm events,  stormwater runoff carries parking lot and street litter and debris into the Upper Rock Creek.

Some of this stream trash is deposited along the Upper Rock Creek bed and banks; the rest is carried downstream to the Tookany, Tacony and Frankford Creeks, the Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Here is a Google Map that shows the Upper Rock Creek survey limits as well as the entire Tookany Creek , and its tributaries, including  Rock Creek, Baeder Creek and Jenkintown Creek.

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This map shows the photo locations for the Cedarbrook Plaza and Cheltenham Mall parking lot litter photo survey and limited survey of stream trash in the Upper Rock Creek.

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The following 5 photos show litter and debris around the Cedarbrook Plaza, these photos were taken on 1/14/13.

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