SiouxCity river clean-up

Iowa- western iowa, that is- is a giant mud puddle filled with dead crops, wasted fields and scary god signs. DO NOT EXIT ON EXIT 95 HWY 29N!!!!! the lake is acually one of a million corn/crop fields flooded through the state.

Sioux city- located near he tri-state border of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, was excited to host their first river clean up this year. An enormous list of organizations, businesses and cities came together for the June 7th event. The Missouri River relief- our small crew of staff and volunteers from KC + Columbia-

During the day on Friday our crew took four boats out to scout and entertain the media. There is a billboard and multiple newspaper publications covering the upcoming clean-up and a great post on the local news that evening. just before sunset we met with some important coordinators and volunteers over a meal. Vicki shouted her few last, inspirational words to the group before folks began to wander off. I took some shots of the river Friday night. There is an Argosy to the right and a cool, modern bridge to the left. It has a blue light that creates an alien glow on the bottom of the bridge, but is surprisingly not over-lit.

Alex sits in his tire throne at the Iowa ramp headquarters.

Saturday was an early morn. We dropped some bags, gloves and a tent off at the Nebraska side and the rest of our truck of at the Iowa ramp. The plan was to take volunteers and equipment out from Iowa and drop trash at the NE ramp. It worked well!

I road out with racin' dave- with intentions of being a mate. We took a boat of folks to the wort of the sites- a thick, rusted old dump. Alex Jansen road along- It will be his 14th clean-up with his father.

This local volunteer busted his *back* digging scrap metal out of a decades-old dump site.

Alex jumped out and Dave requested I stay on shore. We joined the group of clueless volunteers on the dump. I gave a short bout of instructions and suggestions- we piled our life jackets and began piling the scrap metal nearer to the water. Alex helped instruct several volunteers and the group soon recognized him as a knowledgeable, experienced guide.(I think alex is about ten yrs old- he cant get enough of the river!) THANKS ALEX!

A Nebraska boat dropped off a handful of volunteers who followed our lead. They were dropped off without any tools on the opposite side of the dump. Alex and I gophered between the groups. We answered questions, provided tools, dug some trash and I wasted some time with photos.

A young volunteer shows off her found treasure- a duck decoy. She was so excited!... think we've discovered a future river rat!

Racin' arrived and two military-dressed young men loaded his boat. HE dropped some water bottles with our group and took off quickly with a very heavy boat.

Not only was the boat very heavy, the water and gas tanks, mattresses, washers and car parts were loaded far too heavy on the bow. The front of the boat road only a few inches from the surface of the river.

He came again and I through on a jacket. Alex accompanied me to the boat and we jumped aboard as it hit shore. Volunteers began to load the boat heavy with scrap and Dave told me to start moving the weight to the back. I took a few moments to re-organize the heaviest objects to the back of the boat and Alex helped load trash to the front. We had a system and stuck to it. By the end of the load, alex and I road on top of the heap of rusted iron back to the Iowa ramp. A rec boat wizzed far in front of the boat; but with the bow as close to the surface as it was, water from the weak wake flowed onto the steel plate. It streamed below me in the boat before it was diverted to exit holes on either side and was poured back into the river. I glance behind me to discover the biggest smile Ive ever found. It ran from ear to ear on Alex's face and his eyes seemed to focus on nothing-

Dave dropped us off in Iowa. He was going to cross the river and offload in NE. Dont know why he wanted me off the boat.

Alex and I ate lunch and caught a ride to the Nebraska ramp with vik. I took some photos and helped unload. Bill F, alex's father John J. and several crew members swarmed every boat and pile in a Turbo-speed loading of the giant skid-loader thing. The loader dumped it's scoop into one of two dumpsters- for scrap metal or trash. Volunteers made separate piles for dead tires and drums. A small pile sat out of the way for trash and such we needed to save for collections, yard or yard decor (maybe both).

I caught a boat and collected trash from the shore with three others. Most of the trash had been bagged and piled by the clean-up volunteers, some had been collected by fisherman and some was still scattered on shore waiting for volunteers who did not participate. We hauled a boatload back- alex was swimming near the ramp.

Offloaded and headed out for a second load.

Alex continued to swim.


We picked up an estimated 5-7tons scrap metal and 2-3 tons trash. Thats the last I hear... check the website for accurate numbers and more stories! http://www.riverrelief.com/

Congrats Sioux City on a successful first clean-up!

My two fav's for the trip \-

(Above)Lightning over the bridge on sat night. It poured, and I feared for my unprotected camera-but the rain went in seconds and look at what I got! Its a two second exposure and was the only bolt I saw over the bridge. All the other lightning was to the far right of this scene. Got lucky!

(below) Bill's sweaty back as he works on loading the pile of scrap into the scoop of a loader. abstract. I like it.