Arnold Stream Team 211 is seeking volunteers for its annual cleanup along the Meramec River.
The group will begin registering people for the cleanup at 8 a.m. Saturday at Arnold City Park on Bradley Beach Road.
“We will have some banners up and a table set up to check in at (Saturday),” said Brian Waldrop, who co-chairs the Arnold Stream Team with Bernie Arnold.
Waldrop said he hopes to have at least 50 volunteers and possibly up to 90 for this year’s cleanup, which is part of the Open Space Council’s Operation Clean Stream effort for the St. Louis region.
Operation Clean Stream, which began Aug. 21 and concludes Sunday, has volunteers work at various locations throughout the Meramec Watershed.
Waldrop said volunteers for the Arnold cleanup will remove debris from along the Meramec River, as well as the Pomme, Big Muddy and the Little Muddy creeks.
Volunteers will be provided with free gloves, shirts and trash bags.
Waldrop said the Stream Team will provide free snacks in the morning, but it will not provide lunch at the end of the cleanup like it had in the past.
Cleanup efforts typically ended at about noon.
“If everything gets back to normal, we will go full fledge next year,” Waldrop said. He said the Stream Team didn’t recruit volunteers for the annual summer cleanup last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but some people went on their own to clean up where they could, Waldrop said.
The Arnold Stream Team formed in 1991, and over the past 30 years, the group and volunteers have removed more than 100,000 tires and tons of trash for Arnold waterways, Waldrop said.
“I couldn’t even guess on the tonnage we have removed,” he said. “Back in the day, we would fill four to six dumpsters in four hours at Arnold City Park.”
Waldrop said he is not surprised by the group’s success.
“It is the pride of the citizens wanting to make sure Arnold is nice and clean,” Waldrop said. “Then people who have moved into the city, they like it here and want to see it remain clean.”
The Stream Team had a net device called a Watergoat installed in November in Pomme Creek, and it collects trash that flows through the creek before reaching the Meramec River.
Waldrop said the net, which he empties about once a month or after a heavy rainfall, helps keep the Arnold waterways clean.
“It is collecting about 30 gallons of trash each month,” Waldrop said. “It is doing its job and stopping trash there.”
For more information about Operation Clean Stream, go to openspacestl.org.