A local nonprofit asks residents to help clean up Gainesville’s best-known creek this weekend.
Current Problems Inc. will host a public cleanup of Hogtown Creek starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, said Fritzi Olson, executive director of the organization.
The event, which will run until about noon, will be behind Lowe’s AT 2564 NW 13th St.
Olson said she expects between 10 and 20 volunteers to attend.
Volunteers at the event will remove trash from the creek, Olson said.
Most of the pollution found in Hogtown Creek and other local creeks comes from storm water, she said.
“People throw stuff on the ground, and when it rains, it all ends up in one creek or another,” Olson said.
Saturday will be the second public cleanup day as part of Current Problems’ two-month effort to clean up the creek.
“We’re focusing on Hogtown because it’s the best-known waterway in Gainesville,” Olson said. “It’s a good illustration of how water in our creeks ends up in the aquifer.”
Neil Soule, a 23-year-old UF geomatics senior, said he spent much of his childhood playing in the local creeks.
“Our creeks are very polluted, and in a sense, underappreciated,” he said. “There’s definitely more we could do as a community to improve them.”
