PITTSBURGH — A local man is trying to keep Allegheny County’s waters clean by dedicating his free time to cleaning trash out of the Ohio River.
Tom Ross, 49, spends three hours a day, four times a week, in a kayak where he picks litter out of the water.
“I just bungee it all in and hope I make it back to shore,” Ross. said
Ross said he does the work during his free time and he plans to keep doing it for as long as possible.
“I’ll go until the weather allows me,” Ross said.
The mile-and-a-half stretch that Ross cleans up has accumulated a lot of garbage and Ross says it is a major problem.
“I’ve picked up TVs, small cooler fridges, just really anything you can imagine,” Ross said.
More than 250 bags of litter and trash and up to 6,000 bottles have been found in the river since May.
“The biggest thing would be how much litter is out in our waterways. It’s really frustrating. Our litter issues aren’t far away...they’re here in our river and it’s a huge problem,” Ross said.
Ross hopes his actions will have an impact and inspire others to pitch in.
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