March 2022 – In January Mr. Whit Remer, Sustainability & Resilience Officer for the City of Tampa, discussed the City’s efforts to address trash in the Hillsborough River with the River Board.
Mr. Remer said that although the city has been addressing this issue for many years, it is critical to come up with a better strategy to control this issue. He noted that there are citizen Instagram accounts dedicated to the issue. He shared that in October 2021 Tampa became a recipient of an EPA Trash Free Waterway Grant of $500,000. The grant money will be used for a five-part case study – trash hot spot analysis, litter characterization, recycling and disposal behavior assessment, jurisdictional review, and prevention device recommendations. The Study will collect data to see which storm water conveyance systems the trash is coming from. The city is working on a Request for Proposals (RFP) from consultants to work on the study.
Tampa will also continue an outreach and education campaign targeting residents and businesses focused on waste reduction and including sustainable promotional items. Tampa has had successes including its Stormwater’s Environmental Education Art Inlet Painting Program.
Mr. Remer noted that there are over 563 stormwater outfalls that drain to the river or the bay managed by the City of Tampa. Other agencies have other outfalls that are not in this count.
While single-use plastics is an issue, the city is unable to meaningfully regulate single-use plastics at the municipal level. The city has done what is possible. The city can regulate foam polystyrene containers and has done so on city property. Plastic straws are not being regulated at this point as they are not the large pollution cause at this time. Restaurants have been switching based on consumer pressure. Unfortunately, the city is not allowed to regulate plastic bags.
The City is looking at other programs including Sea Bins and Watergoats, however, these are not an effective long-term solution.
There are groups conducting submerged debris recovery. They have completed three dives and have collected 3,760 pounds of submerged trash, including: 94 electric scooters, three E bikes, four road signs, multiple road cones, three wheelchairs, and a 12’ kayak.
Tampa has a Trash Hunter boat. This 46-foot boat is deployed on the Hillsborough River and Tampa Bay. Tampa also has a Bead-Free Bay Program. This program bans throwing beads or other litter in the water which has been a problem during parades. Tampa also promotes a bead re-use program.
Tampa engages with partners including Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful which purchased a 26-foot boat with a shallow 18” draft to get close to the shoreline. It can carry 2.5 tons of trash. They did 24 trips in 2021 collecting approximately 1,080 pounds of floating debris from the river. Another group is Jay’s Green Team which pulls hundreds of pounds of trash from the river. They produced an educational video to help bring attention to the challenge. This group reports that a lot of trash is retrieved from the Tampa General Hospital area and a transient homeless population. Tampa works with Code Enforcement on this issue. There is a non-profit group called the PURE Initiative that goes out in kayaks to collect trash.
With this multi-faceted approach and new initiatives from a recent grant, Tampa hopes to continue and improve on removing and preventing trash in the Hillsborough River.
