More than two dozen volunteer cleanups are scheduled this year across the state.
As the winter sun mirrored onto Lake Neely Henry, Gene Phifer was pleased at the sight of the emerald-green water, unmarred by bobbing trash.
Alabama Power’s Ten Islands Park is on the lake, downstream from Gadsden near Neely Henry Dam. The park’s pristine shores and clear waters pay homage to Phifer, founder of the Renew Our Rivers (ROR) campaign.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Renew Our Rivers. Since 2000, about 131,500 ROR volunteers have removed 8,351 tons of trash from waterways in Alabama and across the Southeast.
The first cleanup for 2024 is slated to take place March 2 in Jefferson County. More than two dozen cleanups are scheduled around the state through the end of the year.
Garbage along the Coosa River near Alabama Power’s Plant Gadsden spurred Phifer to start a cleanup along the shore. It was the beginning of Renew the Coosa, a program that morphed into Renew Our Rivers in 2004.
“The basic model is still intact,” said Phifer, a member of the Neely Henry Lake Association and Keep Etowah Beautiful (KEB). “Each year you try to find something to enhance. We determined what went well and what could be improved for the next year and the years that followed.”
Phifer and his team scouted areas for cleaning, marking sites on topographic maps. “You wanted to put people in a position to be successful,” he said, “while ensuring safety through communications on the water and an onsite safety squad. A lot of work went into it — the planning part and all those things early on. We used that routine every year after that.”
With increased community support, the program required more communications and more people. Every year, the success grew.
“We built off of that. And it started moving to other reservoirs, on the Coosa at first, and the cleanup expanded and that was a good thing.”
Everything, and the kitchen sink
“Keep Etowah Beautiful and its Executive Director Lisa Dover were major players, and still are major players,” Phifer noted.
KEB and the Neely Henry Lake Association annually partner with Alabama Power and ROR Coordinator Mike Clelland to clean Lake Neely Henry. Before Clelland, Environmental Affairs Specialists Doug Powell and Larry Browning helmed the project.
“I was at the first meeting at Gadsden City Hall, with the Etowah County Sheriff’s Department and road crew,” Dover said.
“I’ve seen it all … We’ve removed about five boats, toilets, tires, piers, a commercial deep fryer, general trash and even a kitchen sink.” KEB puts the trash at the Glosser Amphitheater parking lot, across from the Coosa River.
“We really do have a wonderful partner in Alabama Power and Mike Clelland,” Dover added. “Last year surprised me because we came back the first time after COVID, and I anticipated a small cleanup with about 75 people. We wound up with more than 200.”
During his 16 years with ROR, Clelland has enjoyed working with many of the same volunteers.
“It makes it more enjoyable for me, because I know the volunteer groups we’re working with are truly invested and want to clean up their community,” Clelland said. “But at the same time, we’re recruiting new folks, younger folks and some different school groups. It looks like it’s got a long future ahead.”
Alabama Power commits financial resources, personnel and equipment to the ROR campaign. Yearly, the company supplies 10,000 trash bags, 2,000 pickers/grabbers, gloves and ROR T-shirts for all volunteers.
Several hundred employees from the company’s Environmental Affairs department and Alabama Power generating plants assist annually, along with Alabama Power Service Organization volunteers.
From March to November, Clelland spends 30 hours weekly organizing, traveling and working at cleanups.
“A lot goes on besides the day of the actual cleanup,” Clelland said. “Things go on behind the scenes as far as getting supplies delivered to the local coordinators, getting orders turned in and shipped out.”
Winning solution
Phifer met with his team at Plant Gadsden from the first year of the cleanups until his October 2009 retirement as the plant’s Compliance team leader.
“The way Renew Our Rivers spread on the river systems is just fantastic,” Phifer said. “I think we’re all concerned about the aesthetics and the environmental quality of our river systems. We all know that’s a good thing.
“And the fact that other groups and different river associations are doing Renew Our Rivers cleanups, it makes you feel really good.”
To learn more about the Renew Our Rivers campaign and check the most updated schedule of cleanups, click here.
A version of this story originally appeared in Powergrams, a publication serving Alabama Power employees and retirees.
