For cleaning up the polluted Tennessee River watershed, the future is now — with a new network of cutting-edge devices to remove litter, debris, oils, and more.
Last week, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful (KTRB), and others launched a network of electric Seabin skimmer devices to clean the water. The project will launch 18 of the skimmers, making it the largest network of such devices in the world. The project was funded with grants from TDOT and Keep America Beautiful.
“Until now, all of our work has only been able to prevent microplastics in our waterways, so we are thrilled to be making an effort to actually mitigate microplastics out of the water,” said Kathleen Gibi, KTRB executive director. “We’re grateful to TDOT and Keep America Beautiful for these — as I see it — revolutionary grants and to our partners who will be maintaining the Seabins to make this trailblazing project possible.”
The Tennessee River starts in Knoxville, flows south through Chattanooga, dips into Alabama, back up through West Tennessee, and into Kentucky. The clean-up network stretches across the watershed with devices located in Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama.
Here’s how KTRB described the skimmers: “The Seabin device, a product out of Australia, works 24/7 to collect marine debris from the surface of the water, much like a pool skimmer that’s electrically operated.
“Each device can remove up to 3,000 [pounds] of marine debris a year, meaning that the 18 devices installed along the Tennessee River watershed will have the potential of removing up to 54,000 [pounds] a year. Even more than that, the devices will also filter out gasoline, oils, and microplastics from the water.”
In 2017, researchers called the Tennessee River “one of the most plastic-polluted rivers ever recorded in the world.” That year, scientist and endurance swimmer Dr. Andreas Fath swam the nearly 652-mile length of the river with sampling devices connected to his body. His results showed the Tennessee contained 16,000 cubic feet of micro plastics per cubic meter of water, nearly twice as much as China’s polluted Yangtze River, and 8,000 percent higher than levels found in the Rhine River.
Microplastics include plastic bottles, shopping bags, styrofoam, straws, and more. Some of these items remain intact. Others disintegrate into smaller particles that remain in the water, threatening fish and drinking water.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said nearly 70 percent of the trash found in rivers comes from inland sources, like litter left on streets that flows into storm drains, which flow into rivers. This is why TDOT said it got involved in the new Seabin clean-up system.
“TDOT’s partnership with Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful demonstrates the link between roadside litter and debris that ends up in our waterways,” said TDOT Commissioner Joseph Galbato. “Investing in this substantial network of litter removal devices is another example of how TDOT promotes innovative solutions to making our state cleaner and keeping our waterways clear.”