Week 1 Term 3 Cleanup Report on the Local Bridge Walkway

Some Eco-Warriors were unable to join us due to other commitments today but we have two new members to welcome: Kalin and Tara-Lee. Welcome to this wonderful, dedicated group of Eco-Warriors. And thanks to Ms Meikle who came with us on our mission today.

We went along our usual track, keeping to the dry hard surface of the driveway and the narrow walkway as it is so boggy on the Elm Park Reserve. We keep our voices low as we know that some people work at night ('shiftworkers') so they need to sleep during the day.

We found lots of small pieces of plastic, cigarette stubs, and the usual cans, bottles and a couple of plastic bags. Even the smallest piece of plastic can cause problems if our fish eat them.

We have had holidays recently so that may account for all the rubbish we found.

The most unusual, and disturbing, finds today were a small, red rugby ball with "Room 9" on it and a graphic novel tossed into the stream. This last item we couldn't retrieve as we didn't have AJ who is tall and usually retrieves things in the water.

Check out the photos!!

We returned the ball to Room 9.....

Quite a lot of rubbish in the bush beside the walkway... 

We recycle the cans and bottles... 

The third bag... Hmmmm

A great effort by a dedicated team today

The Clean-up continues along the stream... Week 2 Term 2 2014

We finally tackled the rubbish today along the school side of the stream from the big tree down to the foot bridge.  We had seen it last week and last term but there were other priority areas; so we left this until last as much of the rubbish had been trapped by the plantings by the stream.  This was a lucky thing because much of what we found was plastic.

We also went back to the big tree.  We were very happy to see that there were only a couple of cans to pick up.  Now this rubbish is picked up we can go back to taking stream readings and seeing what macro-invertebrates have returned since the sewage spill.

A smaller but very committed group today who did a wonderful job

Our Stream is not a Dump Site! by AJ and Matthew

Can you believe a bed-head has been dumped off the bridge!

Why do people dump shredded paper on the Elm Park Reserve?

So much more shredded paper... it could be recycled!

Can you spot the plastic bag?

Today we went down to see the stream on the last day of the term to see if the rain had cleaned it up.  It looked better and there was no sewage smell but we noticed some things had been dumped.  We saw a bed head by the bridge and a stainless steel door-handle.
There was plastic in the stream which made us sad.

But we were happy to see that the Council has removed the orange cone. Thank you to whoever took this out.

We also saw that a tree has fallen over across the stream.  Perhaps this tree is not the right tree for the side of a stream.

The Big Tree is looking free of rubbish.
(photos by AJ)

The Sad Day for Our Stream

Last Monday a parent from our school phoned the Council Pollution Hotline to report that there was a pungent odour at the stream and lots of eels were dead.  She also alerted our school office and we got the sad news.

On Tuesday morning I went down to the stream with Miss Hughes and we saw very brown dirty water with a brown stain of what smelt like sewage on the high water mark of the bank. There was also a strong chemical odour that was probably ammonia - it was very nasty and gave us a headache for the rest of the day... 

It is best to stay away from the stream.

When the Eco Warriors turned up to go off to do their usual clean up on Thursday lunchtime they learned the news and were very sad.  We tried to phone the Council to hear when it would safe to resume our work but there was no answer so we left a message.

We phoned WaiCare and told them and Kate Loman Smith went to investigate and alert the Council again.

We hope there is lots of rain to flush out the mucky sewage but worry about this pollution going into the Tamaki River and to the sea.

Looking south west from the bridge
- dirty brown water

Looking east from the bridge

Enviro Poster

Shreya's Enviro Poster

Clean Water

Teanna's Poster

The History of Elm Park School Eco Warriors

Quintina's Report