If the weather is nice Saturday, dozens of volunteers are expected to help clean about a 3-mile stretch of the riverbank near Schmidt Field as part of the 14th annual Ohio River Sweep.

        River Sweep began with a handful of volunteers in 1989 as a pilot project of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) in Cincinnati.

        Now, volunteers from Pennsylvania to Illinois get together each year at various points along the river to collect debris to improve the river habitat.

        Last year, more than 22,000 people from more than 100 counties and six states collected more than 9,000 tons of trash.

        “In the years since River Sweep started, more than 70 million tons of trash and debris have been removed from the Ohio River,” said Jeanne Ison, project coordinator for ORSANCO. “That's a big reason why we're not seeing the old couches, refrigerators and other trash we used to see in the river when we first began.”

        Dee Broeman, of Fort Mitchell, volunteered his time and his boat Thursday to take representatives of ORSANCO and the news media on an inspection tour of the river.

        Mr. Broeman took his passengers upstream from the Four Seasons Marina off Kellogg Avenue to the staging area for River Sweep at the Schmidt Field boat ramp in the East End.

        The air was fresh and clear and the riverbanks were already remarkably litter-free.

        “We've been on the river for years and years, and you can really see the difference River Sweep has made,” he said.

        Ms. Ison said the view from the river might have been somewhat deceiving because water levels were high.

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