Cleaning up Cedar Creek

Cleaning up Cedar Creek

A group of about 30 volunteers walked along the banks of Cedar Creek in Galesburg Saturday to pick up trash. 

The clean up is organized each year by the Galesburg Area Chamber of Commerce and Knox County Soil and Water Conservation District. 

Specialist Kara Downin tells WGIL, the clean up is all about awareness. 

"It is an urban creek, it drains all the way to the Mississippi River and it affects ultimately the hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico, which is the dead zone – there’s no oxygen in it, if you’re familiar with it. So volunteerism is important, it gets people out here, it gets them recognizing that what you throw on the ground ends up in the creek and it matters, it affects ultimately the water that you drink because Galesburg get their city water from underneath the Mississippi River and this drains right to the Mississisppi.

Downin says the clean up is in its third year, but they would be open to suggestions for other locations to help clean up throughout the year.

Volunteers picked up garbage from South Linwood Drive to South Archer Avenue.

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