Keeping our lake beautiful
HANNAH NEFF/Staff Writer | Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 3 years, 3 months AGO
Detective Patrick Meehan takes a bag of trash from KCSO dive team members in Lake Coeur d'Alene during the lake cleanup Wednesday. Divers from left are Deputy Miranda Thomas, Sergeant Ryan Miller and Sergeant Jeremy Geurin. HANNAH NEFF/Press
KCSO Deputy Gerald Wallace drives a boat to keep an eye on the KCSO dive team as they extract trash from the bottom of Lake Coeur d'Alene Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Members of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office dive team get ready for a second trip on the water to extract trash from Lake Coeur d'Alene around the Tubbs Hill and Third Street boat launch area Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
KCSO Deputy Jonathan Traw prepares to dive into Lake Coeur d'Alene during the lake cleanup on Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Eight members of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office dive team pulled trash out of Lake Coeur d'Alene around Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Members of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office dive team pulled trash out of Lake Coeur d'Alene around Tubbs Hill Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
A clean up of the bottom of Lake Coeur d'Alene near Tubbs Hill was sponsored by a Couer d'Alene dive shop, Jake's Scuba Adventures, which has done cleanups like this one for 11 years. Owner Jacob Powlison said the shop is part of Project AWARE, a nonprofit organization that works with volunteer scuba divers. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Volunteer Jasper Wilson of Post Falls ties together some of the around 100 tires pulled out of Lake Coeur d'Alene during the underwater cleanup on Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Teams prepared to enter the water during a cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene on Wednesday by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Dive Team, Jake's Scuba Adventures and the City of Coeur d’ Alene Parks Department. HANNAH NEFF/Press
From left, 12-year-old Boyd Rada of Coeur d'Alene and Jasper Wilson of Post Falls volunteered their time to help with the underwater cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene on Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Volunteers Jasper Wilson of Post Falls collects a tire from 17-year-old Everett Hannah of Priest River during the underwater cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene near Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch on Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
2,640 pounds of trash including around 100 tires, sheet metal, signs, alcohol containers and more was extracted from Lake Coeur d'Alene on Wednesday during the underwater cleanup near Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Volunteer Dawn Hannah of Priest River carries trash off the dock during the underwater cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene near Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Members of the KCSO dive team participated in an underwater cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene near Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch on Wednesday. From left, Sergeant Jeremy Geurin and Deputy Miranda Thomas. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Volunteer Jasper Wilson takes trash from volunteer divers while Jacob Powlison looks on. Powilson owns Jake’s Scuba Adventures, a dive shop in Coeur d'Alene, which sponsored the event. The shop is also part of Project AWARE, a nonprofit organization that works with volunteer scuba divers, and has been doing cleanups like this one for 11 years. HANNAH NEFF/Press
In a team effort, the KCSO dive team, divers from Jake’s Scuba Adventures, volunteers and the City of Coeur d’Alene Parks Department spent about four hours cleaning up around 100 square feet of underwater surface of the lake around Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch. From left, Jake Strange, Operations Manager for Kootenai County Parks and waterways; Deputy Andrew Carney; Sergeant Jeremy Geurin; Doug Williams from Kootenai County Parks and Waterways Maintenance; and Sergeant Justin Arts. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Doug Williams from Kootenai County Parks and Waterways Maintenance takes a bag from a KCSO dive team member during the underwater cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ryan Miller and Deputy Miranda Thomas drag trash back to the boat during the underwater cleanup of Lake Coeur d'Alene Wednesday. HANNAH NEFF/Press
2,640 pounds of trash. Around 100 tires, sheet metal, signs, alcohol containers and more.
The 2,500-plus pounds of trash extracted didn’t even make a dent in the garbage in Lake Coeur d’Alene, Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Ryan Miller said.
“It was crazy how much stuff is down there,” Miller said. “We weren't covering much distance and there was just so much garbage.”
In a team effort, the KCSO dive team, divers from Jake’s Scuba Adventures, volunteers and the city of Coeur d’Alene Parks Department spent around four hours cleaning up around 100 square feet of underwater surface of the lake around Tubbs Hill and the Third Street boat launch.
“There’s a lot because of this heavily trafficked area,” Miller said. “The amount of garbage down here is insane.”
Eight KCSO divers, and 18 divers in total, each spent a couple of hours pulling out trash in 41-degree water.
“We like to spend our time here and I think it’s only right to give back and try to preserve the things that we utilize,” volunteer Dawn Hannah of Priest River said. “It’s just a lot of work but you got to preserve it.”
Hannah’s husband, Jerod, and son, Everett, put on their wetsuits to help out.
“I like diving out here, so the cleaner it is, the better the water is,” Jerod Hannah said.
Everett said he was new to diving, so it was a good experience for him to see how he liked it and have fun. For his first time helping in the dive cleanup, Everett said he was surprised at the amount of bottles and cans.
“It was easy to just look down and ‘oh, there’s one,’” Everett said. “There’s a lot of stuff everywhere.”
Daniel Pugh of Post Falls, a volunteer diver, said this was his first cleanup, but usually divers pick up underwater trash as they go. Pugh said he tries to take a bag of trash out every time he goes diving.
“The bottom of the lake in some areas is horrible,” Pugh said. “Especially around Tubbs Hill, (there’s) a lot of bottles and cans.”
Pugh said he volunteered his time to help because it was fun, and something that needed to be done.
“I have seen spots on this lake that are 3 feet thick with glass bottles for hundreds of yards,” said Matthew L., a volunteer diver from Plummer. “When you see that, as a scuba diver, as a fisherman, I don’t want to have to worry about falling into the waters and in a pile like that.”
It was the third cleanup this year for sponsor Jake’s Scuba Adventures, a dive shop in Coeur d'Alene. Owner Jacob Powlison said they are a part of Project AWARE, a nonprofit organization that works with volunteer scuba divers, and have been doing cleanups for 11 years.
Powlison gave out prizes for those collecting the most trash. He said they’ll be doing another cleanup later this month, and probably again in January.
On average Powlison said they pull out about 600 pounds of trash each cleanup.
“We’re just doing our part to help clean out the under part of the world that people don’t see,” Powlison said.
Bill Greenwood, the city Parks and Recreation director, said the cleanup was a win for them as Parks and Recreation doesn’t have the ability and equipment to do a dive cleanup.
“It’s good for the habitat,” Greenwood said. “The bottom of the lake shouldn’t be a trash bed.”
Miller, who runs the recreation safety section of the sheriff’s office, said they often use the area for dive training, as well as a place to bring their families and enjoy the lake.
“It’s very important to us as deputies, as a dive team, and then as citizens ourselves,” Miller said. “To see the amount of garbage down here is a little disheartening.”
Deputy Jonathan Traw said he pulled his last sack of glass bottles and cans from the beach area. The glass could pose a hazard for swimmers.
“There’s just glass bottles everywhere out there,” Traw said.
Miller said while the amount of alcohol containers they found was not unusual, finding around 100 tires was surprising.
“The tires were kind of crazy, how many tires were thrown in that area,” Miller said. “Someone went out of their way to throw tires in there and that was a little odd to me to see that many.”
