Percy Priest Lake Clean Up in Nashville

The Nashville Clean Water Project held their third trash pick up in a year on the islands of Percy Priest Lake today. Luckily the rains held back which made perfect weather for picking up trash. I was in a group which picked up trash off Bear Island. No, we did not find bears, but we found at least two deer skeletons picked clean by vultures. What we did find was lots of trash. The island was covered with styrofoam from coolers and floatation devices. I found lots of glass bottles, aluminum cans and plastic bottles. I know that some of the glass Coca-Cola bottles were decades old.

I found an unopened can of beer that had been bleached white by the sun. The top had the old fashioned pull tab. I could not believe that the can had not exploded over the years. While I was tempted to open it, I left it unopened. I feared what the contents might smell like.

We found a large floatation device that had probably broken loose from the shore during a storm. It was towed back as it could be re-used.

In our group, which was the last for the day, we each picked up about four bags of trash per person. Plus we found tires, PVC pipe and other large objects.