Mercer County purchasing trash trout to help keep litter out of the Bluestone River

Jul. 19—PRINCETON — A device that catches trash as it floats downstream and keeps it from ruining the scenic beauty of a local river is coming to Mercer County.

Litter Control Officer Josh Parks spoke recently to the Mercer County Commission about buying a "Trash Trout," a mechanism that is placed in creeks to filter out litter.

"This is going to be a a pilot project," Parks told the commissioners. "It's a stainless steel and aluminum device that floats with the water level and funnels debris into a main chamber where the trash can be pulled out of the chamber. This will be the first one."

Parks said plans were in place to buy the Trash Trout from Asheville GreenWorks in North Carolinia and bring it back to Mercer County where it will be installed at Brush Creek. The goal is to find grant money to pay for two more.

"We're looking at funding for two more to put into tributaries of the Bluestone River," Parks said. "The reason why we're doing to be doing tributaries instead of Bluestone proper is because these Trash Trouts can handle flows of up to 5,000 cubic feet per second; and the anchoring system, they have to be installed in stream widths less than 50 feet from high water mark to high water mark."

A lot of the litter reaching the Bluestone starts its journey in Brush Creek.

"Brush Creek's a good one because we're doing a trail system on Brush Creek and the area around Gardner we've been working on," Parks said. "Also Brush Creek has been a huge contributor to trash flowing from Princeton into the Bluestone River. There's a lot of trash, so Brush Creek is an excellent choice for the first one."

The Trash Trout will be installed at the Eads Mill Road area, and plans call for installing a real-time camera to monitor it.

"I really don't want to lose this trash trout to people trying to scrap it. That would be horrible," Parks said.

Trash Trouts come with sizable price tags, but the plan is to pay for two more with grants.

"Now, they are kind of expensive — $7,500 for the Trash Trout — but hopefully we can secure grants for the remaining two at Crane Creek and Wide Mouth, Parks said. "The Crane Creek Trash Trout will hopefully be installed somewhere around Crystal and then the Wide Mouth will be installed. We're looking at near the sewage treatment plant in Matoaka."

Parks said the current plan is to visit the first Trash Trout twice a week to see how much litter has been collected, then visit and clear it out about once a week. Visits will likely increase during high water events when trash is flushed into the creek.

"But I think this is a really good project on keeping debris out of the Bluestone River," Parks said. "And we're trying to do the water trail, increasing kayaking, tourism on the Bluestone River. Nobody wants to go kayaking with plastic bottles. Our ultimate goal is to keep trash out of the Bluestone. This isn't a fix. This is a Band-Aid. There is a larger problem afoot, but at least this will help somewhat."

Eventually, the county could look at installing a larger Trash Trout on the Bluestone. One large enough for skimming litter out of the river would cost about $10,000.

"Spanishburg be an excellent one because it's slower down there and not as rocky," Parks said about a possible Bluestone site.

Efforts have been underway to make the Bluestone River a site for kayaking.

"This is something we've been talking about forever," Commission President Bill Archer said. "It is a major leap forward. We've been dealing with waterborne pollutants for a long time and we're trying to address everything. Even the longest journey starts with a single step, and while we've been making great strides in terms opening up new hiking trails and also new kayak trails in the area, we have not yet scratched the surface of trying to address centuries worth of damaging assault on our natural environment.

"The Bluestone, I keep saying to people all the time. is the only river in the state of West Virginia and Virginia that is designated as wild and scenic, but only 9 miles of that from Pipestem to Bluestone Falls is so designated," he added. "The rest of it is not. We've treated it with industrial waste and family waste and personal waste and a bunch of things, but it is our great asset for the future."

The commissioners unanimously approved $7,500 for the Trash Trout. The money will come from the county's video lottery fund.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com