Rotary Volunteers Pick Up Trash From Ox Creek

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cleanup1

Ox Creek in Benton Township and Benton Harbor is a little cleaner thanks to a group of Benton Harbor Sunrise Rotary volunteers. Southwest Michigan Planning Commission senior planner Marcy Hamilton tells WSJM News the team of eight spent last Saturday picking up trash along the creek near Benton Harbor’s Hall Park. She says they found a lot of bottles and food containers.

“Some of it may end up there just on accident,” Hamilton said. “Maybe somebody’s trash can blew over or something, but I think a lot of it is people littering, unfortunately, and it blows and catches a lot in the vegetation that’s growing along the creek.”

Hamilton says Ox Creek starts in rural Benton Township and goes through the area of the Orchards Mall and into Benton Harbor.

“It kind of follows Pipestone Road into Benton Harbor and it crosses Main Street in Benton Harbor and flows into the Paw Paw River. It’s a little creek that is actually really beautiful, but it’s been polluted pretty badly over the years.”

Hamilton says the volunteers collected more than 30 large bags of trash. The Ox Creek Cleanup was held in conjunction with hundreds of cleanups across the country with tens of thousands of volunteers taking part to remove trash from local waterways. You can find out more about the National River Cleanup at AmericanRivers.org/Cleanup.