One of Branson’s greatest tourism and scenic assets is Table Rock Lake, but trash ending up on the shoreline of the lake happens even though, in a perfect world, it shouldn’t. It is the result of the intentional and accidental infusion of trash into, onto, or around the lake resulting from the traffic Table Rock Lake and its immediate surrounding area receives from fishing, hunting, camping, boating, swimming, hiking, and other activities.
Even as people “volunteer” to create the problem through their intentional or negligent acts, it takes other volunteers to clean up and mitigate the problem others have created. Table Rock Water Quality Inc. (TRLWQ), a not for profit corporation whose main mission is maintaining and improving the quality of the ground and surface waters of the Table Rock Lake watershed, is coordinating the annual shoreline cleanup of the lake.
According to a statement on its web site, www.trlwq.org, 2009’s annual shoreline cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, April 4. David Casaletto, Executive of TRLWQ, said the 2009 cleanup is named the “Table Rock Marina Association Shoreline Cleanup,” after its major funding sponsor. The web site statement also points out that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Table Rock Lake will supply trash bags, dumpsters for the trash collected, and other major assistance for the cleanup in support of the hundreds of volunteers who typically participate in the cleanup.
Statistics on the web site indicate that weather and the high water lake levels over the last two years, particularly in 2008, resulted in a drastic cut in the number of shoreline miles that have been cleaned and the total tons of trash and tires collected and removed from the shoreline. Those same statistics show that since 2004 the number of volunteers has dropped from 1016 in 2004 to about 600 in 2008.
It is anticipated that near normal lake levels this year will expose more shore line and make it easier to get to and collect the trash. Casaletto confirmed that will only happen however, if there are enough volunteers to take advantage of the situation.
Normally volunteers are organized into teams made up of members of civic organizations, homeowner’s associations, scouting groups, college students, businesses etc., but Casaletto said that a “team” could consist of just an individual. Teams can register either on line, by going to the website www.trlwq.org and following the appropriate links, or by calling TRLWQ at 417-739-4100.
He also pointed out that, because of the hundreds of miles of shoreline involved in the cleanup, there is no one central gathering place and teams can obtain supplies such as bags, gloves, water, dumpster lists, etc., at the TRLQ office located 2 Kissee Avenue, Kimberling City or by calling 417-739-4100 and making appropriate arrangements. He went on to say that each team member participating in the shoreline cleanup will receive a shoreline cleanup t-shirt and a camping voucher for Table Rock Lake U.S. Army Corps campgrounds.
