MAKING A CLEAN SWEEP: VOLUNTEERS TO TIDY UP OHIO RIVER, OTHERS

CAIRO, Ill. -- Volunteers may not find as much litter as in past years when they kick off the annual Ohio River Sweep Saturday.

"We'll hopefully cover our portion of the cleanup in a couple of hours," said Carolyn Mayberry of Cairo, coordinator for the Cairo and Alexander County portion of the cleanup. "We have a group of volunteers ready and will meet at the 8th Street river entrance at 8 a.m. Saturday."

The Cairo group will wind up at Fort Defiance Park where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet.

As many as 40 volunteers are expected to meet at the Mound City levee landing at 8 a.m. for the Pulaski County portion of the cleanup.

"We'll go up and down the levee," said Louise Calvin. "We're hopeful for a good turnout. When we're finished along the river, we hope to clean up the city park."

More than 22,000 volunteers are expected for the one-day sweep of the entire 981 miles of the Ohio River from near Pittsburgh, Pa., to Cairo, Ill. Volunteers everywhere will receive T-shirts.

This all translates to more than 2,700 miles of shoreline -- both sides of the river, along with the Allegheny, Monongahela, Beaver and Kentucky rivers.

The cleanup is conducted by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission in partnership with Ashland Inc. of Ashland, Ky.

Sweep organizers recently toured a section of the Ohio River in Massac County.

"There seems to be less debris than usual," said Jeanne Ison, project director for the entire sweep. "Everything was in pretty good shape," she said.

Ison said "the big stuff" was missing. "We observed a lot of people trash -- cans, plastic bottles, jugs, small stuff," she said.

The river sweep started in 1989 with volunteers turning out to pick up trash at some of the more littered spots between Ashland and Cincinnati, Ohio. It since has grown to cover both Ohio River shorelines along the entire length of the Ohio and many of the river's feeder streams.

Volunteer teams and county coordinators have been planning the cleanup for the past few weeks. Illinois volunteers are ready along the river at Cairo, Mound City, Olmsted, Brookport and Metropolis.

Gathering spots and, or drop-off points have been established in each of the 72 counties that border the Ohio River in six states.

More than 22,000 volunteers in the 1998 cleanup collected more than 12,000 tons of trash.

"We're not going to get it all in one day, we know," said Ison. "But people feel good about what they do. The annual promotion makes us all conscious of the importance of the Ohio River in terms of recreation and water supply."