Upset at the sight of a car battery and oil filters littering a Campbell County creek where deer drink, Mike Madden recruited 62 volunteers in 1999 to clean the Northern Kentucky waterway and two others.

Nate Sturm of CRIK, or Creek Restoration in Kentucky, sits near debris along Dry Creek in Erlanger. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Three years and hundreds of volunteers later, CRIK, or Creek Restoration in Kentucky, has removed more than 45,000 pounds of garbage from local creeks, said Nate Sturm, Northern Kentucky solid waste coordinator.

        Adopted by the Kentucky Jaycees as a statewide project last year, there's talk of making CRIK a national Jaycees project next year, Mr. Madden said.

        Organizers also have met with Indiana and Ohio environmental groups to discuss starting similar projects. CRIK hopes to launch an Adopt A Creek program — possibly by next spring — to encourage Northern Kentucky schools and civic groups to take responsibility for creeks running through their property.

IF YOU GO

What: Fourth annual CRIK (Creek Restoration in Kentucky) project     When: 8 a.m. to noon Sept. 7     Where: Volunteers will clean up Woolper Creek in Boone County, Dry Creek in Kenton County and Three Mile Creek in Campbell County.     To volunteer or for more information, call Mike Madden at (859) 689-5815.     Sponsors include Chas Wagner Enterprises, Cloves and Lineman Jewelers, Harper Designs, Cold Spring Roadhouse, Shipp Insurance, CSI, Parsons Insurance, Nextel, Toyota, Remke's Market, Quickstep Oil Change, Bavarian Trucking, NKADD, Rumpke, TANK, Northern Kentucky Water District and Sam's Club Foundation.

        Each year, the number of families and organizations participating in CRIK grows. There were 300 volunteers last year, and organizers hope to draw 400 to 500 for this year's event on Sept. 7.

        “I think people are just absolutely amazed by how much garbage is in the creeks,” said Mr. Madden, a 36-year-old Hebron resident. “We get a lot of young people — teenagers and pre-teens — for the cleanups and they bring their parents with them.”

        This year, more than 160 people have signed up for the cleanup. “But we never have enough volunteers,” Mr. Madden said. “There's always a section of a creek that we can't get to because we're limited on volunteers.”

        For the 2002 cleanup, volunteers will revisit Woolper Creek in Boone County because at 13.6 miles long, it's a huge creek, and CRIK didn't have enough helpers last year to do each segment, Mr. Madden said. Volunteers also will focus on Dry Creek in Kenton County and Three Mile Creek in Campbell County.

        Besides creating an eyesore, garbage in creeks can threaten humans and wildlife, CRIK organizers said. Discarded tires can be a breeding ground for mosquitoes and cause flooding. The plastic rings that hold a six-pack of beverage together can strangle waterfowl, and fluids from car batteries and appliances can poison a stream.

        “In the past, we've found toilets, stoves, cars, roofing shingles and paint cans,” Mr. Sturm said. “You name it and we find it.”

        In some cases, people dump tires in creeks to avoid paying a recycling charge, Mr. Madden said.

        “Two years ago in Boone County, we found a castle made out of 100 tires in the middle of Elijah Creek,” Mr. Sturm said. He added that volunteers see a lot of garbage that's blown out of trucks, garbage cans and Dumpsters.

        In April 1999, Mr. Madden asked Jeff Eger, his boss and the general manager at Sanitation District No. 1 about backing a creek cleanup project. He had been inspecting sewer lines in the field, and was amazed at the amount of garbage he found, especially in areas wildlife frequented. When he did some checking, he learned there was no agency responsible for cleaning garbage from creeks.

        “He immediately asked me what I needed,” Mr. Madden said. “My boss has been 100 percent behind this project since its creation.”

        Organized by the Campbell County Jaycees, the CRIK project is supported by the Covington-Kenton County Jaycees, the Boone County Jaycees, the Licking Valley Girl Scout Council, Northern Kentucky Solid Waste Management, and Sanitation District No. 1. The Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky provides buses to take volunteers to creeks, and crews from the sanitation district help carry and load the garbage.

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