Its disgusting: SIAST students clean up Spring Creek

Patio sets, old propane tanks, couches, toys - trudging through the mirky waters of Spring Creek on Friday afternoon, 21-year-old Laura Woloschuk was finding all sorts of discarded items.
"It's disgusting. It's totally gross to think people can throw anything in there," she told the Times-Herald while coming up from the creek bed with a mud-soaked shopping cart filled with rubber tires.
Woloschuk was one of 20 SIAST environmental technician students and water resource technician students who cleaned trash out of the creek on Friday.
Clean-up event organizer Dustin Pollock, SIAST Palliser Campus environmental and water resource engineering program lab technician, said his crew only cleared litter in the creek bed between Fourth Avenue West and Seventh Avenue West.
"You've got to set your limits someplace, because the garbage doesn't quit."
As students hauled bags of trash out of the creek, Pollock said much of the material, although ugly to look at, may not harm the creek ecosystem too much. It's the hazardous containers with oil that will contaminate the creek.
"It only takes a drop of oil to pollute 1,000 litres of water."
Pollock, 24, said he is talking with the city engineering department about possibly getting signs posted along the creek telling people not to litter in it.
"It's all too easy for people to chuck garbage out of the balcony or out of their cars."
He added all the trash in the ravine poses practical problems for the surrounding neighbourhood. For example, the added material can cause the water level to rise more than naturally during spring. Also, he said trash could conceivably block culverts and cause flooding.
Much of the material the SIAST crew found on Friday will be recycled, including all the metals, cans and bottles.
Any remaining garbage the city will take to the landfill.
Pollock said amongst all the trash pulled out of the ravine, there were a couple of items he was somewhat shocked to see.
"Surprising, we found two fish - alive."
Woloschuk said it's appalling fish need to swim through such a filthy creek environment.
"They have to live in this stuff."

Carter Haydu can be reached at 691-1265.