Joining over 120 students from Jones High School, Gage High School, and Mather High School on May 11, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley participated in River Rescue Day, presented by Friends of the Chicago River. Working to clean the river bank behind the Lincoln Village Shopping Center, volunteers collected over 150 bags of trash including car parts, car batteries, broken bottles, tar, and construction debris. In addition, the volunteers removed seven shopping carts from the river and on the river bank. Shopping bags and trash are not only purposefully thrown onto the river bank, but the lack of maintenance of the shopping center leads to garbage and shopping carts being blown into the neighboring river.
"It is imperative that all residents realize the vital role they play in keeping the river clean. A simple act of tossing a pop can out a car window or leaving a cart in a store parking lot may seem trivial at the time, but it will eventually lead to garbage clogging our river and river bank. Each piece of garbage is a step towards the environmental degradation of the Chicago River," said Quigley.
Commissioner Quigley said he will continue to monitor the North Branch of the Chicago River and plans to hold an additional clean-up this fall. This year's Chicago River Rescue was the 10th annual river clean-up presented by the Friends of the Chicago River. Volunteers cleaned up river debris at 54 sites along the Chicago River.
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