SAN ANTONIO — The job of keeping the city's popular creekway trail system in tip-top shape is about to get a big boost from booms.
Friday afternoon, Precinct Four County Commissioner Tommy Calvert cut the ribbon for a pilot project that will help take out the trash.
Calvert said the passive system that will float across Salado Creek will efficiently cut workloads for the volunteers who have been doing the hard, muddy work.
"With this net we're going to be able to capture just as much as 100 volunteers do on a given Saturday or Sunday," Calvert said.
Charles Blank, of River Aid San Antonio, leads many of the efforts.
"These systems are going to enable two people to do what would have taken ten people three times the amount of time and that's because we're consolidating all that trash at these strategic points," Blank said.
Yael Girard is the project leader with Osprey Initiative, the firm that developed the technology.
"The litter booms are a floating barrier that collect litter in the top few inches of the water," Girard said, explaining that floatables are, by far, the biggest maintenance problem in waterways everywhere. "Most of that is what we find in the rivers. Styrofoam cups. Aluminum cans. Plastic bottles. Bags. Film. Food packaging. That material all generally floats toward the surface and these booms stretch out across the waterway and as the material comes downstream, they provide a solid barrier that traps it and allows for easy removal."
Girard said getting the material out of the environment before it degrades is an important mission, one that takes many concerned partners.
"I don't think you can overstate the value of partners. The projects that are most successful are those that have a multi-faceted partnership," Girard said of their work across the country.
In Bexar County, this year-long pilot project is being sponsored by the Coca Cola Company and Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages.
Abraham Tueme is the firm's Director of Sustainability. Tueme said "For us it's a critical mission. It's really a way we can help reduce the challenge around plastic pollution."
Tueme said creating awareness is the first step in solving the challenge in an area of amazing natural beauty.
"I thought it was incredibly beautiful here and I honestly looked at this and said this is the perfect location for this because it creates the understanding that nature is beautiful," Tueme said, adding "We as humans have the ability to keep it beautiful or we have the ability to ruin it. So really it's on us to make the right decisions."
Calvert said keeping waterways clean in the River City is a natural fit.
"Looking at our problems of litter in our water, in the river city that we are, is incredibly important," Calvert said.
Calvert said he hope this pilot will succeed and spread.
"This should be a pilot that we very quickly get into the next fiscal year budget across the county and the city and state-wide, and federal to be quite honest," Calvert said, adding "It's efficient and it's important for the nature of the ecosystem."
Calvert called the effort an investment in our natural beauty, our own health and our safety.
"This is a life safety issue. If it weren't for the guardians of our river, like River Aid and the volunteers...we'd have a lot more trash in these waterways!" Calvert said.
The booms have been deployed on Salado Creek adjacent to the Howard W. Peak Trail in Comanche County Park and the city's Martin Luther King Park. Blank said members of his group will check the booms regularly and remove any trash they find.
They will also monitor the booms during high water events. They say the technology is designed to break away in high velocity events so that they don't create localized flooding problems.
More information about efforts to clean local waterway can be found at the River Aid San Antonio website.