Televisions sets, mattresses and used car tires are not the first things that come to mind as a part of a river’s ecosystem, but this is not the case for Crabtree Creek, a tributary to the Neuse River.

Saturday morning, volunteers worked with the Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation on foot or in boats to participate in the organization’s ninth annual river cleanup. Volunteers hauled trash out of the eight sites, which spanned 80 miles of the river and tributaries, stretching from Falls Lake in Durham to the city center of Smithfield in Johnston County.

Hosted by the Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation, the Neuse River Cleanup acts as a way to do superficial work on the riverbed and to educate citizens about their regional sources of water.

According to riverkeeper Alissa Bierma, Falls Lake and the Neuse account for the majority of the city of Raleigh’s reservoir. Like other bodies of water, a network of springs, lakes and tributaries that converge in both Durham and Wake county feeds the Neuse River.

However, due to the large industrial and agriculture infrastructure of the region, the Neuse River is frequently subject to suffocating pollution and algae blooms.

Saturday morning, over 500 registered volunteers lifted litter out of the various sites in efforts to clean up the cosmetic aspect of the river. Although the volunteers were able to haul dozens of car tires, alcohol bottles and miscellaneous scraps of metal from appliances, many items of garbage remained embedded in the riverbank and riverbed.

“It’s a shame that we can’t do too much to get rid of them,” Justine Homiak, site coordinator, said. “The sand and silt basically act as concrete, so we focus our efforts on things we can manage to help.”

Various metal shelves engulfed by years of silt accumulation, tires, garments of clothing and even an abandoned toilet bowl remained fixed in the riverbed.

The event attracted citizens and environmentalists from all over North Carolina, along with students and faculty from the University made their way in the muck, climbing in and out of the river to do their part in the service.

“The grossest or more disturbing part for me was the garbage that was imbedded into the riverbank,” Bobbie Kelley, advisor in the biological science department, said. “It is going to be a permanent part of the river and it pains me that we left that mark and it will not go away.”

The Neuse Riverkeeper Foundation does more than just aesthetic work to improve the quality of water of the river. The foundation, which is a unique characteristic of North Carolina, also works as a regulator and policy advocate for the wellbeing of the river and the people who use it.

According to riverkeeper Alissa Bierma, good water is a constitutional right.

“When the conservationist movements first began in the late 1800s, the government said that clean water is a right to every citizen,” Bierma said. “My job is to try to educate people about that right as well as maintain that.”

Bierma is one of few riverkeepers in the world. This rare job requires expertise in environmental policy, knowledge of ecology and river-faring skill. According to Bierma, there are only a few hundred in the world.

Bierma heads the upper branch of the Neuse, which spans from Falls Lake to Goldsboro. The river “falls” in Goldsboro, and although the cascade has diminished tremendously, this location marks the separation between the Piedmont and the Coastal Plains.

“My work in the upper branch is more of me wading through the general assembly,” Bierma said. “My colleague, Larry Baldwin in the lower branch…this work is more like wading in hog waste.”

The Neuse runs to the coast and opens in New Bern, with a river mouth stretching six miles as one of the largest in the world. The brackish estuary that stems from this usually is a rich environment for aquatic life, but the history of the Neuse is plagued by pollution and contamination.

Raleigh and Durham sit in the river’s watershed, and agricultural waste from eastern North Carolina flows into the water, which in the past rendered the river filthy and unsafe.

Since the riverkeepers started to work along the sides of politicians in 1980, the river has improved and algae blooms and fish-kills have subsided. Bierma said the foundation has a healthy relationship with politicians in the state general assembly, but she noted room for improvement.

“There is a public hearing coming up on April 21 and our politicians want to change environmental policy to attract business to North Carolina,” Bierma said. “However, North Carolina is a leader in clean policies and for that, we attract good businesses. I am working hard so that the qualities of not just our water and rivers, but our environmental conscious, don’t revert backwards.”

The volunteers in the river cleanup learned about these aspects of the Neuse River and some even pledged to support the non-profit foundation.

“I was surprised at how disgusting the work was,” Kelley said. “I was shocked at how dirty everything was. However, it was a really valuable lesson. In fact, in my case, it spurred me to renew my partnership in donating to the foundation.”

Students volunteering said that the work impacted their outlook on environmentalism. Rashmi Patel, a junior in biochemistry, worked at a site near the intersection of Interstate-440 and Capital Boulevard and said that the amount of litter was discouraging.

“We have issues all around us and we kind of ignore it thinking the next person will do it or that it’s ‘biodegradable,'” Patel said. “This event opened up my eyes to how badly we need to do something now.”