Swift+Creek+Big+Sweep+Mar.+17

Over the course of Saturday morning, I attended the Big Sweep at Swift Creek Lake in Apex Community Park. Initially when I arrived, I had doubts that there would be any real trash in such a well-kept community park like this one. I was astonished to discover that I was completely wrong. Upon splitting up into two groups and everyone grabbing either a trash picker, garbage bag, or recycling bad, we set out on our trek around the lake. We found copious amounts of trash scattered across the shoreline. There were some points at which the trash was so dense and embedded into the environment that we could not get it and other cases where it was too far into the lake.

Swift Creek Lake used to be the water source for the small town of Swift Creek. I found it incredible that a previous water source was such a center for pollution. I found it shocking that there was so little regard for a potential drinking water resource as this one, and it was in this essence that I realized the capacity of water pollution. I never truly understood that water pollution was actually a prevalent issue in a nearby place like this, and I really acknowledged the topic of environmental science.