Scuba group finds trash, treasure in lower Salt River

Jul. 26—During the summer, the lower Salt River is a magnet for people kayaking, tubing and paddleboarding.

It's also a magnet for trash and personal belongings that end up on the river bottom.

"iPhones seem to be really resilient even being under water," said Gilbert resident Curt Bruns. "We actually found one this season that was under water three years. It got dried off and returned to the owner in Nebraska."

Bruns is a member of the Salty Scuba Squad, an all-volunteer nonprofit with a core group of 10 divers who go out to the popular hangout two to three times a week to scoop out bags of trash along with watches, cell phones, wallets, eyeglasses, wedding bands and such. The group also includes non-divers who help pick trash off the surface.

The group typically follows a roughly 9-mile path each time they go out to the river, starting from Water Users Recreation Site to the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area.

Bruns, a veteran diver, joined Salty Scuba Squad last year.

"I saw a post on Facebook of them pulling phones out of the river and giving it back to people," the software engineer recalled. "I thought that was super cool"

Brun met the group at the river and he not only got a chance to dive but to do some treasure hunting, finding an Apple watch and an iPhone.

This season the group so far found 44 cell phones and was able to return about half, according to Brun.

If a found phone is not functioning, Brun would pull out its SIM card and plug it into a working phone to get the cell number. He's then able to contact the phone owner because people generally keep their old cell numbers, according to Brun.

He said fellow diver John Michael has a favorite spot to dive at a location called Mud Cliffs, where people like to jump from into the river.

It's a treasure trove.

"He came up with three watches on one dive," Brun said. "He knows where those watches pool after hitting the water."

Brun noted the group found a total of five watches the week before and was able to return all five.

Some of the unusual items the group has found on the riverbed was a gun in a fanny pack and a car battery, he said.

For the items still unclaimed, Brun, who called himself the keeper of inventory, holds on to them in hopes of one day locating their owners.

Although finding and returning lost valuables is a bonus for the group, the real focus is removing the trash, according to group founder Connie Wickstrom.

"I've been a diver for 27 years and was looking for people who knew how to dive," explained Wickstrom, a nurse living in Scottsdale.

She had recently discovered that people could dive in the Salt River and put the word out for other divers to join her in trying the water there.

"We started going out and lo and behold we found lots of cell phones, keys and wallets," said Wickstrom, who grew up in Gilbert and attended Gilbert High School. "And then we realized how much trash was there. We could not ignore the amount of trash down there anymore."

Wickstrom, who goes by the social handle Salty Scuba Chick, said she then formed a larger team to focus on getting the trash out of the river. Since Jan. 1, the group's pulled 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of trash out of the river, according to Brun.

Wickstrom said while there are other groups cleaning litter from the destination hot spot, her group is the only one that does under-water clean up.

"Unfortunately, every time we go out we find more trash," she said, adding that she doesn't think that people are intentionally throwing stuff into the river. "It's a byproduct of people having fun and not being prepared and things dropping out.

"Part of what we are trying to do is spread the word, 'Hey, when you come out, close down the cooler. Bring trash bags, lock all your stuff down.'"

According to the U.S. Forest Service, on summer weekends as many as 30,000 people look to cool off along the 12-mile stretch of the lower Salt River, from Water Users to Granite Reef Dam. The average temperature of the water is about 68 degrees year-round.

"Definitely being able to return people's memories is really important for us," Wickstrom said; "when you find phone pictures of family members that have passed or a message from a dad who's passed away and there was no back up of that."

She said the team recently found a phone belonging to a mother who hadn't uploaded three to four months worth of pictures of her baby to Cloud Storage.

"When we gave it back to her she thought she would never see it back," Wickstrom said

All of the unclaimed items are uploaded on the group's Facebook page in hopes their owners will come and collect them.

"Obviously picking trash off the bottom is rewarding," Brun said. "But when you find phones, especially ones with lost memories that people through they would never see again, it's just a joy in their faces."

You can help

To donate to Salty Scuba Squad for equipment such as an extra air tank, the Venmo account is Connie Wickstrom@saltyscubasquad

The group also is looking for divers to join. Contact Wickstrom on her Facebook page at facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083317999067