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NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Oct. 13, 2023 — Armed with garbage bags and trash-grabbing tools, about 30 employees of the Regional Water Authority (RWA) descended on Hosley Avenue in Branford Thursday (Oct. 12) to pick up roadside litter in the water company’s Lake Saltonstall watershed.
There was no shortage of trash. Over the course of approximately two hours, the employee volunteers, including RWA President and CEO Larry L. Bingaman, netted enough garbage to fill three large pick-up trucks, including an old couch, a discarded bedframe and mattress, and too many “nip” bottles to count.
Roadside garbage poses a potential threat to water quality, introducing contaminants that get picked up by rainwater and snowmelt as they drain into the reservoirs and aquifers that provide the water we drink. That increases the work that the RWA’s water treatment plants must do to remove those contaminants. The RWA encourages consumers to properly dispose of waste and recyclables, and to remove roadside waste when they can safely do so.