{"id":1215,"date":"2019-10-04T20:09:50","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T20:09:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2023-03-27T15:52:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:52:20","slug":"after-30-years-durhams-big-sweep-clean-up-is-more-than-a-litter-pick-up-outing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2019\/10\/04\/after-30-years-durhams-big-sweep-clean-up-is-more-than-a-litter-pick-up-outing\/","title":{"rendered":"After 30 years, Big Sweep Clean Up is more than a litter pick-up outing"},"content":{"rendered":"
Every fall, Michael Shiflett tugs on sturdy waders and protective gloves, treks into Ellerbe Creek and extracts plastic bottles, abandoned basketballs and any other floating garbage he sees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Shiflett is a regular in the Big Sweep Clean Up, an annual multi-month event where volunteers pick up trash abandoned in Durham\u2019s parks, creeks, and other green spaces.<\/span><\/p>\n Organized over several days in September and October, Big Sweep is not a one-time, good-deed outing. Thirty years of effort have turned what started as a statewide endeavor into a reliable way to recruit locals to help clean up Durham.<\/span> \u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate because we\u2019re at the top of the watershed. No one pees in our streams, so we get fresh water. But everything we flush from our washing machines and our toilets goes downstream into Raleigh,\u201d said Shiflett, a retired medical technician.<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n<\/span>Durham\u2019s Ellerbe Creek watershed has been Shiflett\u2019s clean-up pet project since the 1990s. Winding through several city parks, its waters eventually reach Falls and Jordan<\/span> lakes, Raleigh\u2019s primary drinking water sources. That motivates Shiflett to keep it clean.<\/span><\/p>\n