Water: River Warriors.Suzanne Rhee and 42 other students got wet and dirty to remove six tons of trash from New Jersey's Hackensack River The Hackensack River is a river, approximately 45 mi (72 km) long, in the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, emptying into Newark Bay, a back chamber of New York Harbor. last August. They cleaned up the river as part of a week-long environmental camp. Scooping out the soggy trash was not exactly a glamour job. "When you say `Hackensack River,' people say `Ew! you went in that?'" says Rhee. Like one in three American rivers
tr.v. pol·lut·ed, pol·lut·ing, pol·lutes 1. To make unfit for or harmful to living things, especially by the addition of waste matter. See Synonyms at contaminate. 2. that it's unsafe for swimming, fishing, and/or aquatic life. Still, Rhee, who just completed her third summer on the river cleanup, sees a change in the Hackensack. "Since we started three years ago, the river's getting a lot cleaner," she says. Naturalist Bill Sheehan agrees. Though the river is still polluted, "the quality of the water is much cleaner than it was . . . and the habitats are getting better all the time," he says. So much better, in fact, that last summer Sheehan began offering eco-cruises to show people the abundance Abundance See also Fertility. Amalthea’s horn horn of Zeus’s nurse-goat which became a cornucopia. [Gk. Myth.: Walsh Classical, 19] cornucopia conical receptacle which symbolizes abundance. [Rom. Myth. of turtles, fish, and waterbirds in the river. Sheehan credits the teens for; removing trash that can harm wildlife. Waterbirds, for example, can choke (jargon) choke - To fail to process input or, more generally, to fail at any endeavor. E.g. "NULs make System V's "lpr(1)" choke." See barf, gag. on plastic bottle rings and get cut by scrap metal. Three years ago, when the cleanup started, trash was everywhere. But this year, the teens had to hunt for trash. Billy Dietsch, 17, says the teens turned the cleanup into a competition to see who could find the most garbage garbage: see solid waste. and unload To remove a program from memory or take a tape or disk out of its drive. their boats fastest. By the end of the six-hour shift (with a lunch break for subs and soda), the teens had removed enough trash to fill more than two large dump trucks. They found balloons and plastic bags, as well as cans and bottles (see list, below). They even found an armchair and a kitchen sink! Seeing all that trash in the river makes people begin to care about environmental issues, Rhee says. She hopes that when others read that she and her peers care enough to clean it up, "maybe they will think twice before they throw garbage in." Fact: Here's some of what a group of New Jersey teens hauled out of the Hackensack River last August: * 20 shopping carts * assorted car parts * A garage door * a bike * an armchair * a kitchen sink * loads of cans, bottles, and tires |
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