The following is a statement from the artist regarding our previously published Southside Pride article
“The future of our trash at Lake Hiawatha”:
All of the trash items here are from the Earth Day cleanup at Lake Hiawatha. The cleanup was attended by 104 volunteers on April 20, 2019, and in 2.5 hours, 350 pounds of trash were removed. Amongst that trash, 18,994 pieces of trash were cataloged. Since we started cleaning in 2015, we have removed 6,920 pounds of trash and still there is no stormwater treatment in place for the north pipe storm sewer system, which brings the majority of this trash into our beloved Lake Hiawatha. We are hoping that the City of Minneapolis and The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) will begin installing a stormwater treatment system next winter 2020/2021. We have also asked the city and the MPRB to hire new staff people to clean up trash from Lake Hiawatha. We have not yet heard a response from either agency. Currently no agency monitors trash or removes trash from Lake Hiawatha. It is only community volunteers that remove trash from the lake. But the quantity of trash is too great to address with only volunteers. Since the City of Minneapolis created the infrastructure that delivers the trash to the lake, and the MPRB is responsible to keep the parkland free of trash, it is only fair that we ask for a contribution of effort from these governing agencies that are responsible for the stewardship of Lake Hiawatha.
Sean Connaughty and a collection of trash
