I'm No Environmentalist, But... Willie P. Openshaw
LAKE LIVINGSTON, June 11, 2015 - I received a text from a friend the other day. This friend of mine has a home on Lake Livingston and told me that he got in his boat and went out on the lake recently and was taken aback by the amount of trash that was floating on the surface of Lake Livingston. He said the trash ranged from water bottles to beer bottles to beer cans, rubber balls, plastic ware, pizza boxes, pieces of styrofoam and other unmentionables. He even saw a tire, complete with the rim floating in the lake. He said the trash looked like massive floating islands as big as two acres (That's pretty darn big). He asked if I might be interested in going out and taking some pictures and perhaps bringing it to the attention of the general public. I agreed. That afternoon we went out on Lake Livingston in his boat and, we found that the islands of trash broken up. Prevailing winds and waves managed to break up the floating islands of trash. We still managed to spot a considerable amount of debris, and he was right. Parts of Lake Livingston were an eye sore. We talked about it. With the recent rains and people living on the Trinity River north of the lake, it just seems inevitable that trash is going to wind up accumulating in our pristine lake. It's hard to come up with an answer to the problem. I know that trash, if it sits in the water long enough, it eventually sinks (even plastic water bottles). It's just not a good thought to imagine all that trash in the bottom of Lake Livingston. I do know this, just about everyone drinks bottled water nowadays. Hardly anyone drinks water straight from the faucet these days. That's understandable when you think of the chlorine (which is necessary) that goes into the water. My wife and I recently got a water dispenser (like the kind at the office). I went out and purchased a 5 gallon water bottle. The initial cost was around $12, but once it ran out, I took it to one of these local water dispensing machines and we get 5 gallons for a one dollar. These machines use a process called reverse osmosis to filter the tap water that is dispensed. It's about as clean as water can be and tastes great. Our drinking water bill is about one third of what it was before, and we're helping to not fill our valuable land fills with water bottles. If more folks did this, then perhaps there'd be less bottles in our lake. I know that it wont completely fix the problem of litter floating in Lake Livingston, but at least there'll be fewer bottles. Click here to learn about the impact of water bottles on our environment.
Please scroll through the pictures below.
Tell us what you think should be done about trash floating in Lake Livingston. Email us: editor@polkcountytoday.com. We'll post your suggestions in Letters to the Editor.
Some of the unsightly trash washes up on the shores of Lake Livingston.
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