It doesn't look like a trash dump. It was never designed to be a trash dump. But for reasons not altogether rational, thousands of thoughtless boaters have turned Utah's favorite recreation playground into one very large garbage dump.
Sofas. Refigerators. Lead batteries. If for some reason it stopped working, some folks simply dumped it over the side."People chucked it and thought no one would ever see it again," said Steve Ward, an official with ARA Leisure Services who is coordinating the cleanup of Lake Powell. "They were wrong."
As the waters of the mammoth lake steadily recede - well below 60 feet of normal - the garbage once hidden below the blackish waters is now exposed along much of the 2,000 miles of Lake Powell shoreline.
"No question it's been a real eyesore, not to mention the public safety aspects," Ward added.
For the past year, Ward has coordinated an ongoing and wildly successful effort, called Trash Tracker, to clean up Lake Powell with volunteer labor and donated equipment and supplies. The program is so successful there is now a yearlong waiting list of volunteers wanting to clean up Lake Powell trash.
"We've got 1992 totally booked," said Char Obergh, spokeswoman for the National Park Service, who coordinates the volunteers. "We have thousands of applicants and only a few hundred slots. And almost everyone who goes on the Trash Tracker wants to sign up again."
The program, a cooperative venture between ARA (the private concessionaire at Lake Powell), private corporations and the National Park Service, works as such: For a week at a time, volunteers travel the lake in a houseboat, collecting trash and depositing the debris in a garbage barge following behind.
Chevron USA foots the bill for the boats, Outboard Marine Corp. provides the boat engines, ARA Leisure Services a full-time employee and the National Park Service the liability insurance and oversight. The Navajo Power Plant donated the photo-degradable trash bags.
But it's the people that make the program work, officials say. Volunteers have included a federal judge, schoolteachers, a CIA agent, doctors, a college football coach and farmers, among others.
"It provided me with one of the most fulfilling and fun times I have enjoyed," said Tom Rulland of St. Paul, Minn.
In the last year, the Trash Tracker, as both the program and the houseboat are named, has completed more than 40 missions with five volunteers spending five days and four nights collecting about 50 bags of trash each trip. They bring their own sleeping bag, food and a willingness to work at least 32 hours over five days.
"We have collected everything from cigarette butts to 50-gallon drums," Ward said. They also recovered scores of toxic lead batteries, household furniture and enough fishing gear to stock a sporting goods store.
"You wouldn't believe the stuff that has been chucked into the lake," Ward said. "Like the tremendous number of golf balls. I guess it must be common for people to stand on their houseboats and use Lake Powell for a driving range."
The most unusual item? A refrigerator freezer.
"I can see the wind accidentally blowing clothing and sleeping bags overboard. But not a refrigerator freezer," Ward said.
The enormous trash problem is believed caused by an estimated 2 to 4 percent of the more than 3 million people who visit Lake Powell annually. While most visitors are thoughtful and environmentally conscious, no amount of education is going to touch those creating most of the trash problem.
Consequently, officials plan to maintain the Trash Tracker program indefinitely, even if lake levels should inundate the current garbage problem once again. "There will always be people who litter," Obergh said, "and there will always be a need to pick it up."
Obergh said the equivalent of 4,000 miles of beaches have been cleaned over the past year, including almost every side canyon on the lake. "It's been a tremendous success," she said.
For more information on the program or being a volunteer, contact Obergh at 602-645-2471.