Keep Rockdale Conyers Beautiful is inviting Rockdale County residents to participate in the annual Rivers Alive cleanup on Saturday, Oct. 22. 

Mike Kessler, KCRB chairman, said "We encourage anyone to come out, whether it’s a faith-based community, students who want to get their community service time, or people who want to get out and clean up."

"It will allows individuals to participate in cleaning up their community and contribute to people wanting to live here," Kessler said of the event. "Businesses may see this is a nice community to raise a family or start a business here."

Local volunteers will meet KCRB organizers and City and County Stormwater personnel beginning at 7:30 a.m. at the Pine Log Park pavilion, at 1451 Pine Log Road, to pick up T-shirts and cleanup supplies. 

Later in the afternoon, an appreciation luncheon, sponsored in part by ESG, will be held for all volunteers from noon to 2 p.m, along with other activities.

This year, volunteers will be targeting several locations, including a former junkyard near Davis Middle School and the South River that will eventually become the Lorraine Trailhead, built by the county with SPLOST funding.

Tires and other debris in the area will cleared. Volunteers will either be given a voucher to take collected waste to the recycle centers or will leave collected waste and notify county and city employees for pick up.

All Rockdale County property owners who participate in the Rivers Alive event or County Storm Drain Stenciling Program are eligible to receive a 5 percent Watershed Stewardship credit on their next County Stormwater Utility bill. 

The Rivers Alive Event is a local waterway cleanup event that targets all waterways including ditches, rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands as part of the continuing statewide campaign to clean and preserve over 70,000 miles of Georgia’s rivers and streams. The effort will be part of Rivers Alive, a joint program of the Environmental Protection Division Outreach Education Programs and the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation. 

In 2010, the Rivers Alive campaign resulted in removing over 550 tons of litter and debris from our rivers, streams and wetlands. Throughout the past ten years, over 257,000 Rivers Alive volunteers have extracted over 6.6 million pounds of garbage from 18,700 miles of waterways in Georgia.  This year, all volunteer groups are asked to document the type and amount of trash that is removed from our waterways for the Rivers Alive Campaign using data collection sheets provided during the event.  It is our goal to exceed last year’s numbers and have the most successful event yet.

Volunteers will be encouraged to sign up for and participate in the Rockdale County Stormwater Utility’s Storm Drain Stenciling Program, where volunteer groups use adhesive to attach 4-inch diameter plastic decals to storm drain inlets throughout the County, with the message “No Dumping, Drains to Stream.” This program was designed to educate and remind all residents that anything that enters a storm drain is released without treatment into nearby local waterways. Free stenciling kits will be supplied to volunteers.

Registration forms are available at the County offices of the Administration & Services Building (958 Milstead Avenue), on the County’s website (www.rockdalecounty.org) and forms may be faxed or mailed by request. An appreciation lunch and T-shirts will be available to all registered volunteers the day of the event.

For more information on the Rivers Alive Event, contact Kelli Uyesugi with Rockdale County stormwater at 770-278-7142 or Stormwater.Events@rockdalecounty.org. In the city of Conyers, you can contact Josue DeJesus at 770-785-3704.