Opequon Creek Project Team

Cleaning up trash near our local creeks

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Nine cleanups have been conducted by the Team in 2005 – 2008 in the Opequon watershed.

The West Virginia Governor's Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan (REAP) provides bags, gloves, landfill fees, jon boats, canoes, and trailers to transport trash to the landfill.  

Project Benefits: improved recreational experience for the local residents who use the creek to canoe, kayak, wade, and fish.

April 12, 2008.  Twelve people pitched in to clean up the Opequon near Van Metre Stone Bridge on Golf Course Road.  Everyone worked hard for three solid hours and we collected 40 bags of bottles cans and assorted miscellaneous trash in addition to an air conditioner, a bench car seat, box spring, rabbit cage, large pool liner, 5 tires, 4 car shocks, many sq. ft. of carpet, barbed wire, a television, furniture cushions, car exhaust system, at least six deer carcasses, and other various items. 
September 29, 2007.  Twelve people arrived at the Nahkeeta Campground at Route 9 to begin a cleanup of the stretch of the Opequon from the campground to Vanmetre Ford Stone Bridge. 

The team launched boats about 9:30 and arrived at Stone Bridge at 1:30PM.  We removed the following trash from the creek:  23 tires - 6, 50 gal. steel drums - plastic road barrel - bicycle - 2 chairs - 2 TV sets - car battery - a car seat and steering wheel - a steel stair step - lawn mower engine - steel safe and 13 bags of collected trash. 

July 22, 2007.  OCPT joined its Virginia counterpart at Jim Barnett Park in Winchester to help them with the Abrams Creek clean up, a tributary of Opequon Creek. 

July 21, 2007.  Nineteen people gathered at Vanmetre Ford Stone Bridge to participate in the Opequon Creek cleanup from the Bridge to Route 45.

Highlights of what was removed from the creek:
27 tires, ~24 bags of assorted bottles, cans,
etc.,charcoal grill, box springs and mattress, 3 lawn mowers, part of a
car, carpets, plastic chairs (2 that matched, found ~1/2 mile apart!), 2 lock
boxes, and a T.V.  Left on the bank were 2 very large, heavy safes, 3 couches and left in the water was a large freezer chest.

After we unloaded our collection of trash at Route 45, many members continued down the creek by kayak to the Broken Bridge Farm where there was a barbecue picnic waiting. 

Several members went back on the following days and retrieved 25 more tires, a full spool of new half inch electric cable, the roof of the portajohn we took out last year, one side of a plastic playhouse, two road work marker barrels, a record turntable, a fishing pole and 4 full bags of trash.     


July 14, 2007: Tuscarora Creek Cleanup. The Project Team joined other volunteers to remove trash from the Tuscarora, a tributary of the Opequon.

March 31, 2007: Mill Creek Cleanup. The Project Team got together to conduct a clean up of sections of Mill Creek, a tributary of the Opequon. Ten people spent three hours along the creek and collected 49 bags of trash along with an assortment of old tires and other large trash items. Mill Creek has been identified as the priority Opequon tributary for pollution reduction and will be the focus of other Team efforts in the future.

CleanUps in 2005-06. Three Opequon cleanups have been conducted by the Team in 2005 – 2006. Over 140 tires and other trash have been removed from the creek.

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