Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership hosts World Environment Day for a Second Successful Year

Sunday, June 3 – This year’s sunshine brought sixty volunteers and organizers to Lake Berryessa shorelines to clean up trash. Volunteers scoured the shoreline including ‘party point’ and other Markley Cove Resort pullouts on Sunday.

Volunteers were part of the of the 2012 Celebration of World Environment Day, a United Nations initiative that began in 1972 to create global awareness of the environment, encourage political attention and support individual and community projects.

Sunday’s event was the second World Environment Day held at Lake Berryessa. Volunteers picked up bags of trash and recyclable materials in a clean-up effort that covered 2.5 miles or shoreline. Most of the debris collected included cigarette butts, bottle caps and broken bottles and cans, along with several floatable rings. The debris collected poses risks to our watershed, wildlife and recreation opportunities. It is the hope of many Lake Berryessa visitors that the effort today will promote more conscious actions from lake users.

Among the volunteers were employees from Anheuser Busch, Genentech and Travis Air Force Base. Anheuser-Busch provided funding and support for the event. Markley Cove Resort hosted the after-cleanup picnic with cake and a raffle. Lead organizers were Bureau of Reclamation and Solano Resource Conservation District.

 The Partnership extends a special thank you to the hardworking volunteers, Solano County Water Agency, Peet’s Coffee and Lake Berryessa Jet Ski and Rentals for their generous support in making World Environment Day event at Lake Berryessa a great success.

World Environment Day Lake Berryessa Cleanup was organized by the Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership. The LBWP is composed of local agencies, organizations, businesses and private citizens who work together to protect and enhance the lake’s water quality.

The Partnership runs the Lake’s summer Boater Outreach Program and also hosts an annual Coastal Cleanup Day, set for Saturday, September 15^th 2012.

Each year, organizers hope to bring out more people and find less trash as people learn of the detrimental effects that the debris has on the lake and its watershed. Lake Berryessa supplies drinking water to almost a half million people; it also provides the water used by local industries such as Anheuser-Busch, Jelly Belly and Genentech.