by Nadananda
November 10, 2007
Article courtesy of Friends of The Eel
Where does all the trash come from? Where does it go? Does anyone care? Answers: people; our beaches and the ocean; and yes, people care if it is in front of them when it ends up on their property. Can we do anything about it? You bet. Here's a story of one person making a difference.
A grown man came into the FOER office and angrily told me that I had to do something about the garbage in and along the South Fork Eel River. After all, weren't we the ones taking care of the river? Letting him vent a bit longer, it became apparent that he had called the various county agencies trying to find who was responsible in our local government for clean-up and became frustrated beyond belief at the run-around he got, with fingers pointing him to yet another unresponsive person. He paid taxes, was a good citizen. What was happening to our world? Didn't anybody care? Again and again he was told, "Why bother? There is so much you can't get it all, and if you clean one spot it will just fill up again."
The man was from the area, been gone a while, and had now returned to a lovely spot on the Eel River. The winter rains had loosened the summer's accumulation of human waste in all forms, which was now sailing past his place each day. It was the quantity that was so overwhelming. People thought this guy was nuts for getting so upset, but they were only seeing the garbage along the road, not the debris of the homeless encampments across the river from him, nor the many garbage sites within a three-mile area where there were more homeless encampments-- some abandoned, some occupied--and a few sites where locals had dumped household furniture and garbage.
 | Even the police stop to thank John | ![]() | | Photo: Nadananda |
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I eventually persuaded this man, named John Casali, to help me by going to talk to all the local businesses since he knew most of the owners. I went with him to several sites and began photographing and documenting the waste, and I interviewed him on my radio show. He took a photographic panel with him when he talked at Civic Clubs in the area. Stories began to appear in the local papers as he organized clean-up days. Both local residents and homeless people showed up to help. Working side by side, the problem was tackled. Truckload after truckload was taken to the dump. The accumulated weight climbed into tonnage, and the people kept coming as clean-up days were called. The national Clean-Up of Rivers day in the spring saw a great response. An account for the Eel River Clean-Up was created at our local community credit union, and some of the homeless were put to work as the cleanup continued. John and I went together to talk with our local county supervisor, who was totally unresponsive and uncaring. Calls to the Environmental Health office got one clean-up session of a very toxic site where lots of needles were found, and a culvert dammed up for water catchment threatened a major road. The head of Environmental Health claimed that we were exaggerating the problem, and that you could not look at a river bar and estimate the tonnage of garbage. It's true if you've never cleaned up a trash pile, but by this time so many bags had been filled and transported to the dump that it was easy to estimate the amount. So for the next clean-up we went to only one site, worked three hours with a crew of 26, and left the bags along the side of the road for all to see. People were shocked by the sign that read "200 bags, this site only." They were talking about it on our local radio station; news articles continued to appear, and the photographs were everywhere. Within a short time the local band NPK held a parking lot concert during the monthly "Arts Alive" event. Lots of people showed up and generously filled the donation cans. Two fires in one week started at homeless sites set the community on edge, as extremely low water conditions and tinder-dry forests alerted local landowners to the seriousness of the problem.
| |  | 54,000 pounds in less than 10 months picked up by John and crew | ![]() | | Photo: Nadananda |
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When the International Beach Clean-Up occurred on September 15, another sweep of local Eel River beaches was called. Again I followed with camera in hand, documenting "before and after" images. This time huge numbers of people came to help and donated cash to cover the ever-climbing dump fees and to pay homeless workers. More than $2,000 in cash was donated that day, and the gratitude expressed by local residents for the past nine months of cleanup work was equally helpful.
 | Thank you to all the homeless and locals who helped with the cleanup |
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John Casali presently leads a group of trusted homeless workers, who in turn also patrol the area to let campers know that if they litter they will be escorted out of town, but as long as they keep their sites and the area around them clean, they will not be bothered. We still have tweakers (speed addicts) in the area to contend with who are the worst of all, living with no regard for the Earth or others. But we are getting to know the areas they inhabit and will keep a watchful eye as the community decides what to do with that problem. There is a lot of tolerance in this area for the human condition as long as it is on someone else's property and out of immediate sight.
Probably about 80% of the dump sites can be attributed to homeless people. But the rest are caused by locals not wanting to pay dump fees and perpetrate the old habit of just dumping over the river bank, thinking their trash will disappear during the next winter rains.
Of course the trash does not disappear but is carried down the river to the ocean, where it gathers and either washes back up on our beaches or is carried out to the middle of the ocean where it continues to pollute and kill living things. One person turning his anger and frustration into productive action, using that energy to tackle the problem and inspiring others to help, makes a noticeable difference. Casali and his helpers are experiencing firsthand the power of people united moving a mountain of garbage.
We are all blessed by seeing the immediate result, by the beauty of the area as it shines again where love and caring hands have taken the time to bend over and pick up the garbage. Thank you, river patrols!
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