Encore Extra: High-tech river clean up

On a perfect spring day when nature is at its best, Eagan elementary students board a riverboat on Saint Paul's Harriet Island for a Mississippi River education.

The National Park Service hosts a floating classroom.

Slipping away from the shore, the boat's shrill horn serves as a school bell this day.

Inside, Paul Nordell introduces students to the not-so-pretty side of the river.

"Today we have some authentic Mississippi River trash that I collected," said Nordell who is the "Adopt-a-River" program coordinator.

It is a depressing show-and-tell.

The collection includes a lot of small stuff such as aluminum cans, a pill bottle, and a flip-flop.

"This is a very common size, and it goes on up to houseboats," added Nordell, showing off pieces of retrieved trash.

Up river, on an equally beautiful spring day, Twin Citian and outdoor enthusiast Mike Anderson kayaks the Mississippi River just south of the I-694 bridge.

While picking up small pieces of litter he remarks, "There's a lot more out here than pop cans."

Finding bigger pieces of litter or trash on the portion of the Mississippi River north of downtown Minneapolis has become a personal mission.

This day he noted, "There's a busted picnic table over here." Discovering this trashed table is not part of a scavenger hunt. Anderson ultimately wants to help others find and dispose of such big junk.

Using a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) device, Anderson marks the table's location.

"We'll have a snapshot of exactly where it (a piece of junk) is just based on the satellite's opinion of where we were the time we came across the object," he said.

Once Anderson marks a spot on the river covering a hunk of junk, he takes a photo of the trash. He then has the tools to attract volunteers to this very part of the river.

"We can send somebody to exactly where the garbage is," declared Anderson.

Anderson sends Minnesotans to where the big trash is through his website.

Talking about his website Anderson said, "So there's one blog entry that is focused on nothing but tires, one that's focused on nothing but concrete and construction debris."

He launched the website within the last year. On it, you'll see the big and sometimes surprising stuff he found during river trips last fall along a 10 mile stretch of the Mississippi just north of downtown Minneapolis.

The list includes, safes, barrels, concrete, and a washing machine.

"There's parts of the river here that are essentially a dumping ground," he said.

Pictures of those items, along with website maps and Anderson's GPS coordinates can guide muscle where it's needed.

"We'll have three or four folks who can lift that washing machine out of the mud, get it up to a truck where it can be taken care of the way it should've been in the first place," said Anderson.

One of those trucks will come from northeast Minneapolis-based Marshall Concrete Products.

Standing next to a truck, Marshall's Ryan Morman said, "We'll position our truck in an area and fold down the sides where they can actually load material in the back of the truck."

As it turns out, Anderson's project benefits the very stretch of river that run's past Marshall's backyard.

"Having a better river means it's better down the river, and it's also better for our children, and the future of our city." said Morman.

Minnesota's DNR welcomes Anderson's approach as a hi-tech, adopt-a-river.

"And using those GPS coordinates people can locate things that they were only talking about, well you know it's over there by the, by the, by the -- well now you got the coordinates," said Paul Nordell.

So far, even with all those safes he found in the river, Anderson hasn't found any treasure in the trash. He figures they got in the river because burglers aren't likely to put a safe in a recycle bin.

"Yea, empty," Anderson said.

But for Anderson, there's nothing empty about restoring and preserving Minnesota's beauty.

As he put it, "This is just satisfying."

For more on the companion site to cleanuptheriver.com, click here To find events honoring Earth Day, click hear

By Greg Vandegrift, KARE 11 News

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