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Volunteers clean up Colonial Lake in Lawrence Township

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From diapers to bottles, cans and bits of plastic, volunteer cleaner-uppers collected 732 pounds’ worth of garbage from Colonial Lake Park in Lawrence Township during the annual stream cleanup earlier this month.

The 70 or so volunteers spent two hours combing Colonial Lake and the Shabakunk Creek, which flows into Colonial Lake, on April 6 as they collected garbage that had floated downstream on the Shabakunk Creek from Ewing Township.

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The annual stream cleanup effort, sponsored by the Watershed Institute, has been carried out for 13 years in celebration of Earth Day, which is observed on April 22. The Watershed Institute was formerly known as the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.

Since the stream cleanup’s inception, more than 117,000 pound of garbage has been collected from various locations in participating towns- from Hightstown and East Windsor Township to Princeton and Lawrence Township – in Mercer County.

But the cleanup efforts – at least in Lawrence Township – don’t last.

That may change, however. Municipal Manager Kevin Nerwinski has reached out to Ewing Township Business Administrator Jim McMannimon to make him aware of the trash that flows downstream into Colonial Lake.

Ewing Township officials know about the issue and they are taking steps to correct it, Nerwinski told Township Council at its April 16 meeting.

The issue of trash washing downstream into Colonial Lake was brought to Township Council’s attention at its April 2 meeting by two Lawrence Township residents.

Township resident Robert Pluta told Township Council that Colonial Lake and the adjacent park looked “beautiful” right after last year’s cleanup. But withing a few weeks, the lake began to fill up with trash, he said.

Pluta said much of the trash can be traced to the North Branch of the Shabakunk Creek, which runs through Ewing Township – particularly the part along Prospect Avenue and North Olden Avenue.

There is “tons” of rainwater runoff from the parking lots near the creek, Pluta said, pointing to the parking lot at the Home Depot store on North Olden Avenue.

Pluta and township resident Tom Ritter suggested that the nearby Solterra trash transfer station also could be contributing to the problem. The ground around the fence has washed away, allowing trash and bottles and cans to be swept into the Shabakunk Creek, they said.

“It’s just frustrating,” Pluta said.

Mayor Christopher Bobbitt thanked Pluta and Ritter for bringing the issue to Township Council’s attention. He said he was aware that rainstorms flush debris into the Shabakunk  Creek, and asked Nerwinski to look into it.

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