The City of Kamloops has approved plans for a spring beach cleanup event that will begin at Riverside Park on Sunday, April 21.
Social and Community Development Supervisor, Ty Helgason, says the plan is to hold an annual event as close to Earth Day – April 22 – as possible.
“This is a safe time of the year to be near the water as it’ll be low,” Helgason told City Council Tuesday. “It’s also a safe time of the year for the aforementioned ecology of the river and there will also be more beach to clean with lower water levels.”
Helgason says participants will be given instructions as well as the necessary protective and cleaning equipment, so they can clean up the beaches along the Rivers Trail “within a reasonable distance.”
He said he envisioned people starting at Riverside Park and going towards Pioneer Park downtown as well as along Schubert Drive and Royal Avenue on the North Shore.
“These cleanup areas will be identified on maps and handed out to folks on the day of the event,” Helgason said. “These events will only include those are city-owned and maintained, easy to access, and do not have seasonal or situational concerns.”
He also said there would be places within the cleanup area for people to drop off the garbage that they have collected without having to carry it for long distances.
“The waste will then be collected from those drop off points by city staff, measured so that we can report out on the impact of this event, and disposed off properly,” Helgason said.
He also told Council that there will be a number of partners involved in this April’s event.
That includes Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, which will be tasked with providing historical context on any artifacts that might be found, the NSBIA’ Clean Team which will sweep the beaches for sharps ahead of time, and CSOs who will be on hand in case of any interactions with encampments.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada will also be involved to provide information on the ecology of the riverbanks and salmon habitat, while also engaging with students through their partnerships with the Kamloops-Thompson School District.
City Council were unanimous in their vote to approve the event, which will cost an estimated $21,000.
About $10,000 from the gaming reserve will be used to buy personal protective equipment, garbage pickers and bags, and sharps containers, with the rest coming from the City’s operational budget for attractions and activities like live music, a barbecue, and face painting.
Some Councillors hoping for more frequent cleanup events
The idea for a beach cleanup was put forward by Councillor Mike O’Reilly in September. He said the “historically low water levels” provided a rare opportunity for a thorough cleanup on some of the roughly 110 kilometres of shoreline in Kamloops.
“To me, this is a once in a lifetime or once in a generational opportunity at this point for how low the water levels will go for us to cleanup areas that may not get the opportunity to be cleaned up for a very long time,” O’Reilly said, in September.
Speaking Tuesday, O’Reilly told Helgason said the initiative was “a fantastic first step.”
“I think we are going to learn more than we ever thought we were going to learn and we might get really good advice when people come back and say, ‘hey, what about this? What about this?’ and you and your team will be able to take that and look at how it may be able to expand going in future years,” O’Reilly said.
A number of councillors echoed O’Reilly sentiments with some going as far as voicing their desire to see more frequent clean up initiatives, instead of just one a year.
“It’s a first step and you have to do something,” Kelly Hall said. “I see it as an education opportunity for the entire community. I see it as participation for the entire community. I see it for us as a city to take this and be a leader. The more partners in education and engagement we can get with this event, I think the years to come will be even more successful and we’ll have beautiful beaches in the community.”
“We’re not going to solve the problem all in one day,” Nancy Bepple added. “I think about the fact that we have a hockey team that says ‘River City’ on their jerseys and we have to embrace that we have a responsibility for the river.”
No Adopt-A-Beach Program
O’Reilly’s motion in September also called for the establishment of an Adopt-A-Beach program once the cleanup was complete – similar to the Adopt-A-Road and Adopt-A-Trail programs – so the shorelines can be maintained.
“This, I believe, will be a simple program for staff to implement,” O’Reilly said, at the time.
But Helgason said Tuesday his staff looked into but decided against the program because of concerns like safety during high water, challenging and unstable riverbanks, issues around access to riverbanks, as well as social issues like encampments or drug paraphernalia.
He also said a large event, like what is being planned for April, would help mitigate some of those risks.
“There’s a bit of an inherent safety that comes with being in a large group, being part of an event and having a lot of city resources behind you, which would not always be the case in a situation like an adopt-a-beach,” Helgason said.
But O’Reilly said he expected there would have been similar safety concerns when the Adopt-a-Road program was implemented in the 1980’s.
“I can imagine the risk management division saying ‘we can’t have that going down Hillside Connector. There are trucks going 70km/hr’ [or] ‘we have Mission Flats where its only semi trucks.’ But they’re all successful.”
“There are ways to do this, but that being said, I’m mindful that that will take a bit to get to the point where we can do it.”