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Americana Drive Cleanups
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Veterans Day - November 11, 2023
The kind of rubbish that is all too common on Americana Drive We enjoyed a favorable day for our work, with clear skies and cool temperatures rising to a bit over 60 degrees. As usual, the cleanup was in cooperation with the Fairfax County Restoration Project. We were also supported by Annandale Rotary Club, Facets, and by The Vistas apartments. Thank you Rotary, Facets, and The Vistas! Our 52 volunteers removed 100 bags of trash, 19 tires, 6 mattresses, 1 bed frame, 2 toilets, 1 bathroom sink, 1 dishwasher, 10 gallons of paint, 2 ten-foot lengths of steel pipe, a half-dozen rolls of carpet and padding, and a guesstimated 3.5 tons of miscellaneous debris, including much lumber and many chunks of concrete . The two toilets we found are symbolic of the way some people treat Americana Drive. As if Americana Drive needed more problems, just a few days earlier, there was a sanitary sewer leak here.
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Clean the Bay Day - June 3, 2023
Team Rubicon shows their colors. Our day was a great one for a cleanup, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 80's. The thunderstorms that had been in the forecast did not materialize. As usual, the project was in cooperation with the Fairfax County Restoration Project, and hosted by The Vistas apartments. We enjoyed support from several different groups today - Team Rubicon, Tzu Chi Foundation, NoVA New Leaf, Christopher Cares Foundation, Balfour Beatty, Annandale Rotary Club, Dewberry, and KPMG. Thank you Team Rubicon, Tzu Chi, Dewberry, NoVA New Leaf, Christopher Cares, Balfour Beatty, Rotary, and KPMG! We were also pleased to be joined by Delegate Vivian Watts and staff from the Braddock District Supervisor's office. Our 96 volunteers, young and old, managed to remove 145 bags of trash, 18 tires, roughly one tone of assorted construction debris, one 1.25 gallon container of motor oil, an empty automotive refrigerant tank, a kitchen sink, and a vehicle fuel tank with traces of fuel remaining. We figured the wallet we found with credit cards expired in 1998 did not requre the attention of the police or former owner. Of course, we also found a toilet - the day is never complete on Americana Drive without finding a discarded toilet. Thanks to independent cleanups in the preceding weeks by VDOT and Operation Stream Shield, our challenge today was less than what we usually encounter. We were able to leave Americana Drive looking almost clean (but not quite spotless). If the dumpers and litterbugs can restrain themselves, their neighbors may actually be able to walk and drive on Americana Drive without a sense of downheartedness.
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Cleanup - April 1, 2023
West End Rugby Team with the mountain of rubbish they collected. Our day began with steady light rain, but the Springfield Youth Club's West End Rugby Team, along with coaches and family, turned out ready to work. Together, they faced hazardous muddy slopes and unwieldy nail-studded construction debris in the dumping fields along Americana Drive. By the time we finished, the sun was shining down on the pile of 43 trash bags, 1 water heater, 1 mini washer, 1 toilet, 2 mattresses, 2 chairs, 4 tires, half a dozen carpet rolls, and an estimated 2 tons of construction debris (mostly lumber, concrete chunks, and paint cans). Thank you West End Rugby!
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Presidents Day Cleanup - February 20, 2023
VDOT customized the message on their electronic warning signs. On Presidents Day a group of 86 volunteers turned out to address the chronic problem of dumping and heavy littering along Americana Drive. We had an excellent day for working outdoors, with partly cloudy skies and temperatures rising into the mid 50's. As usual, the project was in cooperation with the Fairfax County Restoration Project. We were also supported by Facets, and by The Vistas apartments. We were also pleased to be joined by Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw. Operation Stream Shield, a Fairfax County work program for shelter residents, makes our task easier by making regular visits to clean along Americana Drive, and had been there just a few days prior. Unfortunately, the dumpers and litterbugs are at work 24/7. Discarded construction materials are a major element of the items dumped along Americana Drive, tossed away as a matter of convenience by the operators of the many commercial vehicles that park here. It seemed we removed enough lumber, brick, tile, siding, plumbing, insulation, and carpet to build a new house. In three hours of work, the volunteers removed 247 bags of trash, 21 tires, 8 doors, 4 shopping carts, 3 barbeque grills, 2 car doors, 1 toilet, 1 sink, 1 cash register, 1 washing machine, 1 bicycle, 1 hoverboard, and perhaps over 3 tons of loose debris. There is still so much more out there.
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One volunteer caught sitting down on the job
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