With at least 5 tons of trash collecting in the Inner Harbor each month, about a dozen teens from the Department of Juvenile Services volunteered to clean some of it Saturday before it washed into storm drains.
The "TrashBusters" group, organized by Juvenile Services, is part of a larger city campaign to crack down on litter and illegal dumping, which is being promoted by the Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association and other civic and neighborhood groups.
The program will attempt not only to curb waste, but will help connect neighborhoods "to improve the quality of life within the watershed and as a result, have people responsible for cleaning and greening their neighborhood," said Dr. Ray Bahr, a board member of the Baltimore Harbor Watershed Association.
For 10 weeks starting Monday, the city has pledged to lay down a code enforcement dragnet in a seven-block square area from East Eager to East Fayette and from Duncan to Streeper streets, encompassing about 4,000 homes. Tickets will be issued fining violators $50 and up.
The neighborhoods being targeted are in a two-square-mile area of the city connected by a 55-mile network of storm sewers that empty into the harbor at Canton, where a large interceptor collects several tons each month, Bahr said.
But trash that flows into storm drains can collect, causing blockages and flooding. Last month, a storm drain blew up after filling with water from a nearby water main break on top of mounds of garbage on Montpelier Street in Waverly.
"We got a lot done," said Richard Burton, special projects coordinator with Juvenile Services, who worked with the teens in the McElderry neighborhood in East Baltimore.
He said the cleanup was not only about the initial trash removal but "teaching people to keep it clean."