Taking Out the Tennessee River’s Trash

An abandoned boat seems like a particularly rude thing to leave in a river. A refrigerator is a close second.

Both were among the approximately 4,490 pounds of trash removed from Knoxville’s waterways last Friday by Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful (KTnRB) and 20 volunteers from Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB). The haul also included a television, two tires, a 200-pound dock and 49 bags of litter.

I joined the crew for the first leg of their day-long cleanup journey, departing from Gov. Ned McWherter/Riverside Landing Park aboard one of the nonprofit’s two 26-foot workboats. The day’s cleanup covered shorelines along Fort Loudoun Lake, the Holston River and the French Broad River, which converge in Knoxville to form the Tennessee River.

The outing was part of the ninth annual Keep the Tennessee River Watershed Beautiful Month, presented by TVA, and a fitting way for the Knoxville-based nonprofit to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Executive Director Kathleen Gibi explained that this particular cleanup was especially meaningful because it included the stretch of river where KUB draws Knoxville’s drinking water. “They’re actually going to be helping to protect Knoxville’s drinking source today with our river cleanup,” she said.

The Tennessee River supplies our drinking water, supports industry and recreation, and sustains the most biodiverse river system in North America. Its recreational economy alone generates an estimated $12 billion annually. “The water is why we’re here,” Kathleen said. “This river is why our town was settled here.”

Of course, rivers also have a tendency to collect everything we carelessly leave behind.

Anyone missing their boat? The crew towed this abandoned vessel out of the river.

Kathleen explained that roughly 80% of litter in waterways originates on land, eventually washing through storm drains and into streams and rivers. Other debris comes from illegal dumping or natural disasters, including Hurricane Helene, which sent enormous amounts of material into the region’s waterways.

As for Friday’s refrigerator? Kathleen said it could have been displaced by flooding, or someone might simply have decided that paying a disposal fee was less appealing than dumping it.

While the largest objects make for impressive cleanup statistics, much of the problem is less visible. Floodwaters carry litter into wooded shorelines, where it can accumulate for years, out of sight of anyone traveling on the river.

“Our boats take us to places that most people wouldn’t be willing to take their boats,” Kathleen explained. “What we’re really trying to do is daylight all this trash that’s out on the river that even boaters don’t see.”

KUB analyst Grayson Byard, who works in the utility’s Energy Solutions Department, was among the employees participating.

“The Tennessee River is a main artery for everyone that lives here,” he said. “It is our main source. It is the reason we have such good industry and business partnerships here in the community.”

With KUB celebrating the 100th anniversary of its Mark B. Whitaker Water Treatment Plant on Riverside Drive (I’m touring it later this week and will be back with a full report!), protecting the river that supplies its drinking water seemed especially appropriate. Grayson noted that KUB offers paid volunteer opportunities to employees, allowing them to participate in projects that benefit the communities where they live and work.

KTnRB’s work extends far beyond Knoxville. It’s the first Keep America Beautiful affiliate dedicated exclusively to a river, and its fleet travels throughout the seven-state Tennessee River watershed, conducting approximately 35 to 40 cleanups annually.

Last year, the organization surpassed its first million pounds of trash removed. To date, 5,620 volunteers have helped remove more than 1.13 million pounds of debris across 276 cleanup events. That is a staggering amount of garbage, and a staggering amount of volunteer labor.

The organization also supports conservation efforts beyond trash collection. Over the weekend I visited UT’s McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture, which maintains one of the largest and most important research collections of freshwater mussels in the United States, with my kiddo. These unassuming little creatures are remarkably important to river health. University of Tennessee research has demonstrated that freshwater mussels can filter microplastics from the water, making their conservation directly relevant to KTnRB’s mission.

“They’re the most endangered animal in Tennessee,” Kathleen said. “They don’t have cute eyes and all that, so a lot of people describe them as living rocks.”

Through its mussel conservation initiative, the organization partners with scientists working to restore populations while helping the public understand why these often-overlooked animals are important.  “We try to help people fall in love with mussels,” she said.

Beyond large-scale cleanups, KTnRB offers several ways for people to participate. Its Adopt a River Mile program has grown to 357 adopted miles, while Adopt a Storm Drain encourages people to regularly remove litter before rain carries it into the water. Residents can also pledge to eliminate a single-use plastic or Styrofoam item from their routines for a year.

Donations help maintain the nonprofit’s hardworking fleet of boats and trucks, but Kathleen emphasized that protecting the river doesn’t require boarding a boat or even living near the waterfront.

“If you see a piece of litter, even if it’s Market Square where you don’t see a body of water, if you pick that litter up, you’re protecting the river,” she said. “The next rain would just dump it into our river through the storm drain.”

It’s a useful reminder that the health of the Tennessee River begins well beyond its banks. And perhaps that the next time we see a discarded water bottle on the sidewalk, we should pick it up before someone has to take a boat out to retrieve it.

Thanks for your hard work, KUB! Learn more about volunteer opportunities, conservation programs and how to support the organization at keeptnriverbeautiful.org.

A few more photos from the day: