Culver City, CA. Each year, on the third Saturday of September, the Ballona Creek Renaissance contributes to Coastal Cleanup Day. The Culver City community, along with thousands of other communities around the world, do their part to reduce pollution in their neighborhoods. Volunteers for the Ballona Creek Renaissance focus on designated areas of the creek, removing trash on the banks, from the water, and the bike path or fencing.
Organizers say, “We discover lots of other items which somehow make their way into the creek. Previous cleanups have yielded toys, balls, shopping carts, carpeting, signs, mattresses, dead animals, and drugs and medical equipment. We ask the City to remove dangerous items. After the cleanup is complete, the City or County will dispose of all the trash collected. In truth, the cleanup is symbolic, representing just a tiny fraction of the trash in the creek, but it raises awareness.”
Below is a video about the program:
Ballona Creek is a flood-controlled channel that is approximately nine miles long. During the dry heat, the creek flows with urban runoff, which contains pollutants from the city. Coastal Cleanup Day is hosted just before Southern California’s rainy season. The volunteers, made up of adults, students, and young children alike, typically spend two to three hours at the creek during the Ballona Creek Renaissance’s advertised cleanups.
For more information on Coastal Cleanup Day, and Coastal Cleanup Month, visit its founding organization Heal The Bay. To learn more about the Ballona Creek Renaissance and its upcoming projects, click here.
