Spring cleaning in the Canals

Waterways get annual Earth Day treatment from the Surfrider Foundation

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The Surfrider Foundation-Central Long Island Chapter conducted a beach and canal cleanup in conjunction with the Race2Rebuild events on April 18. The work was part of the group’s annual Earth Day canal cleanup project, started by the chapter’s Vice-chairman Marvin Weiss after Hurricane Sandy.

“It was a great effort from everybody,” Weiss said. “Cleaning was very successful. We removed several dilapidated pieces of dock that were floating in the Heron Street Canal.”

The Surfrider Foundation’s local chapter conducts a cleaning of the canals every year on a weekend around Earth Day, in partnership with the Northeast Bay and Canal Civic Association. Weiss said they try and begin about an hour before low tide each year, to maximize their efforts and to get to all three canals. The city provided the cleanup crew with a backhoe to help them remove large pieces of debris.

“How much debris exactly? We got a lot,” Weiss said.

At least seven bicycles were pulled from the Doyle Street canal, he said, although a shopping cart was stuck too deeply in the mud to be removed.

“The canals cleanup was one of those days that makes Long Beach so special — expert local divers from Surfrider discovered submerged docks that needed rescuing and teamed up with community volunteers and one of our public works crews to rescue and remove the structure,” City Manager Jack Schnirman said. “Everyone worked together and had fun.”

Eight workers in wetsuits dove into the canals to remove debris, which was then pulled up by volunteers on the docks and transported to trucks and dumpsters to be taken away. Some volunteers also cleaned up the streets on the blocks around the canals as well. Weiss said teams moved through the backyards, some clearing debris remaining from Sandy. They moved all the way up to Park Avenue.

Race2Rebuild partnered with the group and provided them with around 20 volunteers, Weiss said. Surfrider in turn provided reusable water bottles to the Run, Ride, Rebuild participants. Volunteers cleaned beaches from New York Avenue going east in the morning before moving onto the Canals at noon for the Surfrider efforts.

Sarah Hartmann, president of Race2Rebuild, said that the beach and canals cleanup filled two truckloads with debris.