Crews with Kentucky Fish & Wildlife and Scott County picked up debris along the Elkhorn Creek Thursday following the removal of a long-standing low-head dam in Georgetown two weeks ago.
The department bulldozed the Great Crossing Park dam to address safety concerns. It’s been linked to two drownings in the past four years.
The dam’s removal caused water levels to lower, exposing tires, bicycles and other debris along the creek.
Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Rich Storm says they feel responsible to be stewards of the river.
“As the water levels receded, we noticed a great deal of trash, including tires,” he said. “We found an oven in here today. We've, we've got a lot of metal and just rusty parts. And we've been out loading it with boats onto a backhoe and a track loader.”
The cleanup required a few dozen people to pull boats of debris through a mile-long stretch of Elkhorn Creek.
Fisheries Biologist David Baker says it required a team to pull boats full of debris through Elkhorn Creek and up a boat ramp.
“Through teamwork, we kept digging stuff out, we kept pushing and I think we started off with two or three people pulling boats through riffles, and by the end, with all the weight in the boat, it would take in like six or eight of us to pull the boats through,” Baker said.
Fish and Wildlife officials say the removal of low-head dams is both a safety issue and an environmental one. Free-flowing rivers will allow for more biodiversity, and better fishing. Engineering Infrastructure and Technology Division Director Kevin Rexroat says it also helps make cleanup efforts easier.
“There's a natural evolution that occurs in stream systems that create what are ripples and pools, and so those will now become more migratory, as intended,” Rexroat said. “It not only moves fine material like paper or trash, but it moves native material, like very fine sand particles and rocks the way it should.”
Officials say they’ll be continuing cleanup efforts along a two-mile stretch.
