Last weekend’s presentation of the City of Campbell River Stewardship Awards reminds us of all the great things many Campbell Riverites are doing to preserve our gorgeous local environment.
But the visit last month of the Canadive expedition reminds us that we have a lot still to do. The Canadive expedition is a diving couple travelling the country cleaning up various aquatic environments. McIvor Lake was their target during their visit here as they joined an annual effort by the local SCUBA diving community, lead by Beaver Aquatics, to clean up the bottom of the lake. And boy does it need it.
This year Canadive and local people who joined them, hauled 484 pounds of garbage from the bottom of McIvor Lake, mostly from the Doggie Point area. That 484 pounds constituted 159 golf balls, 679 aluminum cans and 414 glass bottles.
“By weight, it was the most trash we collected anywhere,” said Canadive found Charlotte Rydlund.
Anywhere. In the country.
Maybe in addition to the Stewardship Awards we should hand out the Slob Awards and give it to ourselves. Or, more correctly, give it to the people who still think it’s alright to toss your pop can or beer bottle into the lake or take your trusty driver out to beach and whack a few golf balls into the water. Is there any justifiable reason for throwing trash into the lake? Any lake.
Besides just being disgusting on its own terms, throwing trash into McIvor Lake doubles the affront by stint of this body of water connects to our drinking water supply. How stupid can people be?
Thank goodness there are people like the Stewardship Award winners who do good work because the behaviour of other people fills us with despair.