Participate in a beach cleanup in the Chicago area

Volunteers collect trash and data at North Avenue Beach in Chicago, Sept. 2008. Photo by Dennis Belogorsky.

By Abby Crisostomo

With summer weather finally here in the Chicago region, beach season is now officially underway.  But with those beachgoers comes their trash, along with concerns about how that trash affects the quality of the water we swim in.  Along the Illinois and Indiana coasts of Lake Michigan, most beaches are managed by local park districts like the Chicago Park District in Chicago that monitor the quality of the water and inform the public when conditions are unsafe for swimming.  Trash left on beaches can directly pollute the water, pose safety hazards for people and wildlife, and attract nuisance wildlife that eat the garbage and then pollute the water with their droppings.  According to the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 2010 report Testing the Waters, out of the 30 states that do water sample monitoring, Indiana ranked 25^th and Illinois ranked 28^th (with 30^th being the worst) in percentage of times pathogen levels were higher than national standards.

While most local beach managers regularly clean and monitor their beaches, debris can still get missed.  Some ways to do your part when out at the beach include keeping trash and recyclables in designated receptacles or taking them with you when you leave, not smoking at the beach, not feeding wildlife, and reporting any possible pollution sources, such as overflowing garbage cans, fuel leaks from boats, or illegal dumping.  One way to play an even larger role in protecting the quality of the Great Lakes beaches is to participate in the Adopt-a-Beach™ program.

Run by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, a regional Great Lakes education, advocacy and policy nonprofit, the Adopt-a-Beach™ program started in 2003 as an offshoot of an annual international event.  The program runs year-round and allows groups and individuals to be a part of keeping beaches clean by becoming educated about beach health, removing litter from the beaches, and collecting and submitting beach health assessment data.  In 2010, the program engaged more than 10,700 volunteers at 292 beaches in six states, picking up 31,295 pounds of trash off the beaches.

Volunteers at Buffington Harbor in Gary, Ind., Sept. 2010. Photo by Jerry Torres.

Participants not only are picking up the trash, but also tallying everything they pick up.  For example, cigarette butts are consistently the number one item by number found by volunteers on Chicago beaches.  In 2007, Adopt-a-Beach™ data contributed to the Chicago Park District’s decision to ban smoking on city beaches.

Along with picking up trash, participants also complete a beach health assessment form that is aligned with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Sanitary Survey Form.  Trash is not the only type of pollution that makes beaches unsafe for swimming; the questions volunteers answer on this form help determine other contributing factors, including identifying outfall pipes that dump into the lake, making note of weather events that trigger combined sewer overflows, and finding toxins dumped on the beach.  Volunteers identify pollution sources and provide a snapshot of beach health on the day of their visit, which includes testing water samples for bacteria levels and noting water color, smell, and presence of algae.

If you are interested in participating in Adopt-a-Beach™ cleanup events, here are two ways to get involved. 

1.  Create your own team.  Select your own beach and choose your own visit dates by contacting the state coordinator. 

2.  Join teams that are already scheduled to go on visits.  The Alliance keeps a calendar of open cleanup events that anyone can join.  Some upcoming events in Illinois and Indiana include (see calendar for full details):

• Wednesday, June 15 at 12^th Street Beach in Chicago
• Saturday, June 18 at Moraine Park in Highland Park, Ill.
• Friday, June 24 at North Avenue Beach in Chicago
• Saturday, June 25 at Kemil Beach in Michigan City, Ind.
• Sunday, July 3 at Foster Avenue Beach in Chicago
• Saturday, July 9at Juneway Terrace Park Beach in Chicago
• Monday, July 11 at the Mouth of the Waukegan River in Waukegan, Ill.
• Saturday, July 16^th at Washington Park Beach in Michigan City, Ind.

UIC students volunteer at Foster Avenue Beach in Chicago, Sept. 2010. Photo by Frances Canonizado.

On Saturday, Sept. 17, the September Adopt-a-Beach™ cleanup event will occur simultaneously at beaches throughout the Great Lakes region in conjunction with the International Coastal Cleanup happening at beaches all over the world.  The summer and September events are fun ways to enjoy the beach, while learning more about them, contributing real data, and making them cleaner for all of us to use.

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