LA River cleanup underway after heavy rain causes trash buildup

Days after a huge winter storm hit the Southland, bringing heavy rain with it, cleanup crews are busy at work clearing the Los Angeles River of a considerable pileup of trash. 

A record-setting amount of rain caused chaos for many Angelenos, who were subject to road closures, evacuation orders and flash flood warnings. As the rain fell, a massive amount of runoff flooded into the LA River, causing trash to gather along the shoreline. 

Contracted workers through Los Angeles County expect to be cleaning through at least the end of next week as they remove literal tons of trash from the river. 

Thus far, they’ve reported removing everything from shrubbery and soccer balls to inner tubes and a massive amount of plastics. 

“Just seeing it is really eye-opening,” said Dr. Katherine Pease, with Heal the Bay. “We see really elevated levels of bacteria right after rainfall. We urge people to stay out of the water for at least 72 hours.”

Last week, Long Beach’s shoreline reports detailed that the area had received mostly A’s, meaning a good quality of water. She expects those results to see a considerable downturn after the storm. 

While the trash floating on the surface can be scooped up and removed from the area, Dr. Pease said that the big problem is the things that can’t be seen, including pollutants like oil and pesticides that sweep down from city streets. 

Groups like Ocean Blue Project have also taken action, since the booms in the LA River can’t catch all of the trash that runs into the water, often making their way to the ocean beyond. 

Richard Arterbury, Ocean Blue Project Founder, said that Long Beach is a hotspot for his foundation, which operates around the nation. 

He said that last time there was a cleanup in the area, volunteers collected around 150 pounds of trash. 

“We have over 8 billion people in the world, if we all picked up three pieces a day, of any kind of litter we wanted to pick up, if we work together we can solve this issue,” he said.