ZAP the Blackstone: 50th Anniversary Cleanup
Described as “the biggest Green Up / Clean Up in 50 years”, today’s ZAP the Blackstone event celebrated the original event on September 9, 1972. According to the official website of ZAP, at the time of the first cleanup, ecologist David Rosser found that fifty-three percent of the Blackstone River’s flow was raw sewage.
The cleanliness of the river had long been in decline. Since the start of the American Industrial Revolution in 1793 with the opening of Slater Mill on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, industrial pollution as been dumped directly into the river. Dye dumping from textile mills turned the river the color of whatever clothing was dyed that day. Bernat Mill in Uxbridge, formerly known as Capron Mill and Bachman Uxbridge Worsted Company, was a longtime manufacturer of uniforms for the United States military, and company owners of the 19th and early 20th century were known to allow dye dumping.
While I was a park ranger at Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, I learned a phrase to describe a belief that lingered into the 1950s and 60s: “The Solution to Pollution Is Dilution”. People of this time, from factory owners to shift workers to farmers, believed that nature was large enough to dilute whatever garbage was put into it. Unfortunately, we now know that heavy metals, plastics, and chemicals take thousands of years to break down and will poison the environment until they are removed.
The health and cleanliness of the river has greatly improved since then, but litter still remains a major issue. I spent under an hour cleaning about 50 meters of roadside banks in front of my house and filled a thirty gallon bag full of trash. Most litter was empty bottles of alcohol or cannabis, with a few fast food containers. Although not a scientifically rigorous study, this indicates a high correlation between driving under the influence and littering. While it is horrifying to imagine the number of drunk or high drivers speeding through the semi-rural residential area where I live, there is a silver lining to this finding. A person who does not drive drunk seems unlikely to litter, so there may be a correlation between respecting the safety of others and respecting the environment, a connection that did not exist fifty years ago.
While today’s garbage collecting efforts may have been disheartening to volunteers, this region has come a long way in terms of understanding environmental stewardship. I anticipate further changes in attitudes and new laws protecting our environment as we continue to hold cleanups and educate the public about the Blackstone River.
