Trash Free Trinity

in response to FWR article

as regards trash in all watersheds, not just the Trinity, look at the "Trash Free Trinity" guys on FB, not the public cash for private benefit Trash Wheels serving only Panther Island.

Trash Free Trinity suspended our activities because Codes and Compliance , now ESD, has basically manhandled the trash problems in various watersheds emptying into the West and Clear forks resulting in huge improvements in trash corralling and a HUGE IMPROVEMENT in attitude about trash in the waterways., IOW: problem solved ...ask to speak to Nix , [email protected], to get a summary of C&C efforts....they are extensive , Some were highly criticized by Trash Free Trinity and subsequently changed....notably watergoats, an abysmal failure from the jump.
Its all documented there for u to read, Mr. Mantas and Ms. Samsel, , as i have advised u for the last 4 years. Interestingly i never got an enquiry from you even as FWSTFWR runs out the annual trash wheel story and failure therein.
To your article on FWR, it leads with the lie suggesting the Trinity needs a million $$ to pick up 50,000lbs a day of trash....there isn't 200lb of trash in both forks at any time and if there is it will never reach a trash wheel.....
By way of reference here is a report on one of the most successful trash wheel in the country...... "Tampa’s Litter Skimmer Celebrates Two Years, Removes Over 72,500 Pounds of Trash (msn.com)"
That's 72,500 lbs in 2 years in a major metropolitan and Intracoastal Waterway Bay, not on a drought stricken intermittent West Texas River.
Panther Island Real Estate Interests and the FW press isn't interested in that story as they angle for public money to keep trash out of private canals. TRASH FREE TRINITY got Willow Lake mitigated, and Lake Costco. Our last project was to get Marine Creek at 1st St. cleaned up with the help of ESD. This was a trash site 100 yds from an elementary school and neglected for years .Ask them what a trash wheel at PI will do for them, or folks along Overton Creek or Sycamore Creek or Marine Creek, or newly mitigated Lake Como not to mention the hundreds of other waterways largest and small draining into the Trinity.
These were all successfully mitigated or are being mitigated by CoFW and ESD and KFWB at a fraction of the millions scheduled to be spent on the trash wheels which won't pick up one piece of trash in Trinity park, 1/2 mile upstream.
The Trash Wheels service Panther Island and its real estate interests only.
Hell we wouldn't even oppose them if they would work cost effectively. But they won't. See paragraph above.

FWR and FWST has refused to report our successful efforts to cleanup the Trinity and its watershed trash even as the trash wheels fade slowly into obscurity........... poor journalism and poor citizenship from these orgs.

www.star-telegram.c

a reality check: 72,000lbs over 2 years is not 50,000lbs a year

Tampa Bay is a bay, not a drought stricken West Texas river

Tampa’s Litter Skimmer Celebrates Two Years, Removes Over 72,500 Pounds of Trash TAMPA, Fla. \- Tampa is marking the second anniversary of its Litter Skimmer, a specialized boat that has significantly contributed to keeping the city's waterways clean. Since its launch, the Litter Skimmer has removed a remarkable 72,500 pounds of trash, surpassing the weight of a fully loaded shi...

to ESD:

A review:

Like Willow Lake, City View Retention ponds could stand an engineered solution.....unless ESD and KFWB commit to a wet feet/elbow grease program.

Cody once chided Lake Costco owners to clean up under threat of violation of some health codes. Did that ever happen again? Is there any regular cleanup going on there?

What's happening now, Atkins Studywise?

Last I checked Marine Creek is still a superfund site. Its located nearby to Murco Ind....There is Marine Creek and a creek that flows into Marine Creek...just go to past Ellis Elementary, about 50', and look down from the bridge......BTW shameful as this is, it has persisted since the day we started TFT. 50" from a elem school under a bridge that kids cross every day. Does no one care at ESD?

Any fwd progress on a Marine Creek Clean up squad. either by Upsire or maybe Northside biz owner's . U know the Rover Hotel and the $1B gang could put together a small band to regularly clean up the Creek that benefits them?

You can see I have many questions which could easily be answered by ESD and KFWB if you all regularly published some info and updates.

How's the Bandalong working?....Is the increased trash fee assessment going to waste? Stuff like that.

I believe there is a grand plan for Sycamore Park. Does that include Sycamore Creek all the way up past Hemphill Transfer station especially including the much-neglected Carter Park run?

Most creek and tributary cleanup strategies don't need a STUDY to tell EDS what to do. Its essentially boils down to : What part of that $13M increase in waste fees will u dedicate to hand cleaning those parts that won't benefit from technology. We recognize even $13M will only go so far, that is why we recommend developing partnerships with the locals of that creek, local that have resources and manpower to hit problem spots the day after the trash is deposited.
A succes story is Westcreek at Foster Park. Someone seems to clean the creek bottom quite quickly after a rain....Upsire i think but ESD doesn't' publish that info, so who knows, maybe its residents or trash drones. Sounds dumb but ESD does little to let us know who is cleaning what, when and where.

A few hundred feet downstream where Westcreek meets Overton Creek, its a much tuffer job because of Hulen area impervious cover contribution to the trash load. This can be caught above Willow Lake with a "device", helping Overton Creek and Willow Lake homeowners at the same time. However, the pretty mundane deployment of a "device" has taken ESD $400,000 and 2 years and there is still no 'device'. THIS IS PATENTLY RIDICULOUS.

We can only imagine the state of Marine Creek and Sycamore Creek. We don't regularly monitor. ESD said the Overton Creek Floatables study would be replicated for other parts of town, but as I mentioned before, its been $400,000 and 2 years later and the Atkins Floatables Study has not been approved, much less implemented.

So we suggest Cowtown biz and civic orgs form their own cleanup squads. Sycamore Creek is a little tuffer because there is no natural constituents to manage trash in Sycamore Creek. Maybe City Council can get involved because ESD seems to lack the desire to organize groups, depending instead on outsourcing to Upsire. Not a problem if they clean up as needed in a timely manner.

Again, there is nothing published anywhere about ESD intentions for Marine Creek or Sycamore Creek.

For those of you who think the Great American Clean Up and other efforts by KFWB are doing that job, they aren't. They clean up mainly street side trash or trash along the Trinity levees, not in the water and in stream beds. This is the trash u see stuck in trees and rocks along the streambed as u amble down Marine Creek Park Trail or thru Cobb Park and Carter Park.

Hopefully we will hear something soon from Cody Whittenberg's brand new Environmental Services Department and their brand new, much enlarged funding.

Parks and Rec deserve some scrutiny too. Especially they could enlist and organize all the sports teams that use the parks to do a sweep in the vicinity before games. We are talking 5000 pairs of hands and feet every Saturday and Sunday. Enthusiastically teaching the kids about environmentalism and giving back...
FREE OF CHARGE - u gotta love that!
Here I am thinking Buck Sansom/Marine Creek and Woodmont Linear Park/Sycamore Creek. I am sure there are dozens more parks.

TFT