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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Nov. 30, 1999
99-252
Contact: Jani Gilbert, Public Information Manager, 509-456-4464; pager, 509-622-1289
SPOKANE - Ecology Youth Corps litter crews operating in Franklin County cleaned 94 miles of state highway and four acres of state land during an eight-week period last summer.
The 12 youths in the Pasco-based crews accumulated 1,164 bags totaling almost nine tons of litter.
Members of the Ecology Youth Corps must be ages 14-16, and they are selected through the interview process after returning completed applications to the Department of Ecology (Ecology) in Spokane.
Applications may be picked up each year beginning Feb. 1 at the Employment Security Department in Pasco or through school counselors. The teens are paid $6 an hour to collect litter.
"These are great kids doing a great job for the state of Washington," said Gary Lambacher, with Ecology's solid-waste program. "The kids provide an important service to their communities and also gain valuable job skills, teamwork experience, safety awareness and education about their environment."
In addition to bagging trash commonly thrown from vehicles, the crews also come across some more interesting items, such as car parts, hood ornaments, drug paraphernalia, diapers, and dead animals.
"This is more than just a job for these youths -- they are developing an important environmental ethic," Lambacher said. "If we could afford to send all kids through this program, the litter problem would eventually go away!"
The Pasco crews, supervised by Timothy Haugen, included Olga Angulo, Norma Chavez, Brenton Cooper, Alex Garcia, Chandra Jamerson, Lorena Lopez, Richard Matthews, Michael Moreno, Brian Oak, Gabriella Preciado, Vasiliy Stepanov, and Sean Thary, all from Pasco.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
