Alice Ferguson Potomac River Watershed Clean Up - April 10, 2010
On Saturday, 4/10/2010, 60 volunteers came together to take part in the 2010 Alice Ferguson clean up.  We targeted the section of the Little Run watershed between Centreville Farms Road and Stringfellow Road.  The trash tally was amazing and included:  49 - tires, 81 - bags of trash of all types , 2 - pickup truck loads of miscellaneous chunks of metal , 2 - lawn mowers , 1 - dog igloo , 2 - children's wading pools , 60' - 3/4" rebar , 100' - 4" black drain tubing , 50' -  phone cable , 3 - inflatable rafts , 1 - metal animal feeding trough, 1 - refrigerator (formerly inhabited by a 4' long black snake who was exceedingly grouchy, but physically unharmed, about his eviction), 1 - washing machine , and countless plastic bags, bottles and cans.

The total haul weighed 5,380 lbs.   (Based on the scales at the Ox Road landfill and tire weight based on established formulas).

One of the more amazing aspects of this clean up was the number of tires.  Prior to to Saturday we figured there might be a total of 10.  A clean up by the Park Authority a couple of years ago netted 150.  However, this group had 60 pairs of eyes and kept finding tire after tire.  Fortunately the Ox Road landfill folks let us drop them off at no charge...otherwise the disposal fee for the tires would have been $147.00.  (Also, Dave Breese found a $20.00 bill and donated it to the cost of hauling the bags to the landfill. This covered all but $10.00 of the total fees).

Of greater importance is that tires are a known breeding habitat of the West Nile virus carrying mosquito. Two years ago, the Fairfax County Health Department analyzed the 150 tires mentioned above, and they were swarming with tiger mosquito larvae.  So those of you who worked so hard to bring the 49 tires out may have prevented people from getting seriously ill or even dying.

In addition to the clean up described above, there were three smaller ones in other locations.  Mike Shipley and the Union Mill Community Association brought in 18 - bags of trash , 1 - canoe (repairable and given to a local conservation group) , and 1 - tire .  Ned Foster and Vinne Caporale dismantled and removed: 1 - 32' X 2' footbridge
and 7 - bags of trash.  Tom and Melanie Champ cleaned a tributary stream in the Little Rocky Run neighborhood and hauled out 8 bags of trash.

Activity in all four locations amounted to 122 bags of trash, an all-time overall record for our annual Alice Ferguson clean up.  However, last year's Alice Ferguson clean up still holds the record for bags removed from a single clean up location in one day.
Volunteers included (in order of sign-in):  Anne Brodeur, Zack Fields, Nicole Slowik, Jon Slowik, Nick Janish, Andrea Janish, Terry Canden, Rodney Peterson, Graham Reifert, Michael Chon, Damaru Adhikis, Patrick Haney, Kristy Dennis, Susan Pasovich, Pat Griffey, Betty Jo Couto, Jacob Strauch, David Yu, Lynne Mowery, Matt Breen, Krystal Kliger, Coffi Didavi, Lesantha Wedande, Dinu Patel, James Bierwirth, Diane Bierwirth, Dan Gilroy, Rajul Teredesci, Michelle Tran, Mike Shipley, Mary Breese, Dave Breese, Marius Burdubus, Steven Crone, Sean Whalen, Rona King, Shaliwe Gaur, Jason Lorenzetti, David Riedel, Connie Trinh, Tammy Teng, Robin Enriquez, Jaquinder Kaur, Chris Kelly, Sean Zintel, Stephan Clark, Mary Ann Lyons, Charles Lincoln, Phil Odom, Leah Odom, Julian Yu, Jonathan Kim, Indira Kanchiraju, Chaya Manohai Kanchiraju, Sandeep Kanchiraju, Ganesh Bubramanian, Vidya Ganesh, Anjuli Jain, Linda Blake, and Rebecca Blake.

Kudos again to CDM, Malcom Pirnie, and, this year, newcomer AMEC Earth and Environmental.  The bulk of the volunteer work force came from these three great  companies. 
Special thanks to Lynn Foster, JB and Diane Bierwirth, Lasantha Wedande, and Lasantha's nephew Dmitri.  All of the forementioned stuck around until 3:30 or so until every bag and tire was hauled away.  Dmitri was particularly helpful at the dump...youth and agility are always appreciated.  We finished at 3:30 thanks to the logistical skills of the aforementioned.

The Friends of Little Rocky Run always strive to do turn-key clean ups.  We did it this time too, and left the site spotless!