New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
River cleanup effort seeks volunteers
ANSONIA — Local environmentalist Kevin
Zak grew up playing on the banks of the Naugatuck River, and has since dedicated his life to cleaning the 40-mile gem “one piece of trash at a time.”
Some of the trash and debris Zak and his wife, Sondra, and many volunteers have collected over the years include anything you can imagine and even the occasional kitchen sink.
The latest crusade that Zak and the nonprofit group he founded, the Naugatuck River Revival Group, will embark on, is happening this Sunday, Sept. 27.
In an example of work he does, Zak was recently contacted by Mayor David Cassetti to help remove several large tires found floating in the river below
the Ansonia River Walk on Division Street.
Cassetti was contacted by resident Myra Rivers last week after she had been jogging along the River Walk and noticed several tires exposed in the low-flowing river. Cassetti tracked down Zak’s group and enlisted their help to remove some of the more than 40 tires.
So the Zaks, without hesitation suited up in their rubber waders last weekend and removed 15 tires.
But there’s more work to be done, which is why Cassetti is seeking volunteers to join the Zaks to rid the river of the rest of the unsightly tires.
The river is at its lowest point right now and is only a few inches deep where the tires are located. The goal is to form a “human water bucket brigade” to bring the tires from the river up to the rocky bank for removal.
“The more volunteers we get, the easier this cleanup will be,” said Zak. “With enough community volunteers, your river can be rid of this unsightly rubber wasteland in no time.”
Zak said the tires were not dumped in Ansonia, but rather accumulated there from upstream where they were “illegally dumped” for decades.
“People pay $5 for disposal of each tire you replace on your car,” Zak said. “A dishonest dealer/auto shop piles them up and pays (someone) $2 each to take them away to somewhere. They dump them in the river. There should be a way to trace tires to the shop that takes them off your car. The city of Waterbury caught a tire shop doing this a year or two ago.”
The Zaks have removed at least 1,000 tires or more to date. And they don’t just specialize in tire removal, he said.
“We have removed everything you have ever owned including the kitchen sink…bowling balls, pay phones,
ATM machines, a safe, car engine, 1,800-pound railroad tracks, an 840pound 1800s industrial machine from the Farrel Co., blue and white tea cup, guns, Georgia buggy, water heaters, dashboards, office machines, sewing machines, basketball hoops, fire hoses, rugs, industrial pipes and iPhones,” Zak said.
Those 16 and older interested in volunteering on Sunday can contact Cassetti’s office at 203-736-5900 or email gmartin@ansoniact.org. People should come equipped with work gloves, eye protection, work boots or other sturdy footwear and plan to meet at 9 a.m. at the gazebo at the River Walk entrance. Santini’s will donate pizza for a post-cleanup party.
As for the Zaks, who got married in the river in 2016, complete with tux, gown and water shoes, ensuring the river stays clean for generations to come is just “the right thing to do.”
“Its neglect needed to end,” Zak said. “We had no right to ask or tell someone else to do it. Sometimes you just have to act.”