Spring Sweep a Sweeping Success

Despite cold and wet conditions, thirty-one volunteers showed up this past Saturday to participate in the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper (BNW) Spring Sweep event to “sweep” an area along a branch of Cazenovia Creek, off Knox Road in East Aurora. Spring Sweep is a yearly event hosted by the BNW as part of the larger Great Lakes CleanUp. The goal is to remove trash that threatens waterways and gather data about what is found. Though the woods below the Knox soccer fields seem far removed from Lake Erie, East Aurora is part of the Buffalo Niagara Watershed. This means trash that enters Cazenovia Creek here in East Aurora has a literal downstream impact on the Great Lakes.

Among the East Aurora volunteers were ACES members, students, families and nearby residents. The group removed an astounding 41 bags of trash and a large pile of debris with just an hour and a half of work. The debris included large pieces of metal, six car tires, one extra-large tractor tire, several rugs, and a couch cushion. The volunteers left wet, muddy, and tired, but pleased with the results the group accomplished in just one morning.

The volunteers were armed with gloves, tongs, bags, and buckets, as well as their phones. During the sweep most participants worked in pairs, one gathering debris and the other logging what was found using the Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell app. Categories included household waste like plastic bottles and cans, cigarette butts and old shoes, as well as construction debris and miscellaneous plastic. Each participant left the sweep with information about their individual contribution, including number of items logged and an estimated total weight collected. The data will later be pooled with all the Spring Sweep sites to be used for BNW’s greater advocacy efforts. Past data has supported initiatives like the recent polystyrene foam and plastic bag bans in New York State and NY State Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against PepsiCo’s single-use plastic packaging.

The Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s 2024 Spring Sweep had 1,233 volunteers at 40 sites throughout the Niagara River Watershed, collecting 10,460 pounds of trash. This year was the inaugural year for East Aurora to join as a Spring Sweep Site, following ACES’ trash mob cleanup of the village last April. The data for the 2025 Spring Sweep is still coming in, but the pile the East Aurora volunteers stood behind for the closing picture made this small group’s impact clear.

Did you miss this year’s sweep, but want to contribute to the BNW’s mission? Keep an eye out next April for the 2026 Clean Sweep event or participate in your own “solo sweep” anytime! For more information, visit the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper’s site at  https://bnwaterkeeper.org/cleanups

-By Jessica Dudley