Point Reyes Light - November 28, 2002

Drake pupils find tons of trash in creek

By Anika Zappa

A decade or so ago, a mechanic in the Tomales Bay area who specialized in working on foreign cars took to dumping leftover parts in Papermill/Lagunitas Creek near Platform Bridge on the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road.

That was the conclusion offered a week ago by Jeff Hvid of San Anselmo, who with the help of five Drake High students has been cleaning up the creek for six Sundays.

Although the rusted car parts are too heavy for the volunteers to haul out up steep banks, Hvid noted some old batteries continue to leach lead, which is toxic to aquatic life, into the creek.

And even though most of the old automotive parts remain stuck in the muddy creek bottom, the volunteers have been able to remove tons of newer debris, such as mattresses, refrigerator parts, and sofas. "Someone obviously thought it was a good place to use instead of a dump," Hvid commented wryly.

Park helping out

The creek at Platform (Graffiti) Bridge is privately owned but scheduled to eventually be bought by the Park Service, and Don Neubacher, superintendent of the Point Reyes National Seashore, has arranged to have park staff truck away the piles of debris the youths haul out of the creekbed.

The four seniors and one junior working with Hvid are part of a Drake High environmental-internship program called the SEA-DISC Academy, and on their own, the students decided the outdoor project would be a good use of their internship.

"It’s a good outside experience," said an enthusiastic Kai Guilisano, a senior. Another senior, Elena Mihaly, said the cleanup work "is cool because you can see the direct impact [of illegal dumping], and we are helping the environment."

Their enthusiasm is significant because it takes considerable effort for the youths to hike up and down the creek, gather debris, and carry what they can 30 up high, steep, slippery creekbanks to Platform Bridge Road. Debris too awkward to carry is loaded on a fiberglass sled and pulled up.

Hvid has previously discovered and cleaned several other illegal-dumping sites in West Marin, including one on Olema Hill at the opposite end of Platform Bridge Road. "All you need for this job is determination and legs," he joked.

Students enthusiastic

All the same, the students working with him are enthusiastic. When they finish piling debris by the side of Platform Bridge Road each Sunday, they have fun making signs that express their feelings about what they are doing.

A week ago, the volunteers took 1,400 to 1,500 pounds of debris out of the creek and piled it up for the Park Service to get "rid of it the safest way possible," Guilisano said.

Hvid meanwhile said it is important to remove trash dumped along roadsides because once a spot becomes recognized as a place for illegal dumping, other people feel freer to also dump there. "Trash breeds trash," Hvid noted.

Point Reyes Light Cover | News | Coastal Traveler