Volunteers came as far away as Vancouver to take part in the clean-up of the Katzie Slough on Sunday.
Thirty five volunteers met by the east entrance to Meadowtown Shopping Centre parking lot before heading out along the slough picking up garbage as they went.
The event was put on by the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, Katzie First Nation, and Friends of Katzie Slough.
A sweep of the area was done on the Friday before the event for syringes and other sharp objects. Around 24 needles were picked up during the sweep and an additional five or six were found during the cleanup.
“We need to have more sympathy for people on the fringes of society,” said Pitt Meadows Mayor John Becker.
“The status quo is unsustainable. We can’t have needles here. You can’t have people living under the bridge like Billy Goat’s Gruff,” he said, adding that the first concern of a politician is the safety and security of the community including the people who find themselves desperate.
Becker said the problem with this part of the slough is that it is in a no-mans-land jurisdiction including Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, TransLink and the bridge operator.
“We have protocols in place that are collaborative but we need to get TransLink and the bridge operator,” said Becker about maintaining the cleanliness and safety of the area.
Participants in the cleanup filled up around two garbage bags each.
Bigger items included a bicycle tire that was pulled from the water along with a bed frame and a dresser that was broken apart. Also Styrofoam boxes that once contained farmed salmon were also found in pieces littering the area.
The best thing that came out of it was having the mayor there and having him just realize that it is not a safe place for people to be living in or even for even our community members to be cleaning up,” said Lina Azeez with Watershed Watch.
“Actually him saying, you know what, we need to get all the people who have ownership of this area to come together, get them all into a room and decide how we want to address this area and clean it up and make it more welcoming, that was one of the biggest wins from having the clean-up,” she continued.
Ultimately, Azeez would like to see a fish-friendly pump installed at the Kennedy Pump station, she wants to see the waterway restored so that it is healthy all the way through so that salmon will be able to use it again at key times of their life cycle.
