While the city of Canton undergoes many projects throughout the year, there is one major ecological installation that recently occurred, which serves as a cleaning mechanism in Canton Creek. In order to prevent large amounts of litter from flowing straight into the Etowah River, the Upper Etowah River Alliance partnered with Stormwater Systems and the founder of Building Fires INC, Todd Baker, to place a Bandalong Bandit water trap along the creek.
Environmental Impact
The Bandalong Bandit installed in Canton Creek is a floating litter trap used to capture surface debris before it flows downstream. This installation is impactful to the community of Canton and its rivers due to its safeguarding of aquatic habitats, reduction of the risk of wildlife ingestion or entanglement, and its ability to keep river corridors cleaner.
Bandalong Bandit
The Bandalong Bandit is a compact, eco-friendly floating litter trap. It serves to capture plastic bottles, bags, and other debris before its flow downstream. One of the advantages to the addition of a Bandalong Bandit, rather than placing any other mechanism into the creek, is that it does not require electricity or motors. All the trap needs is the current to push the floating litter and secure it away from sailing downstream.
Community/Logistics
Since the trap is reliant on its passive engineering, there is no risk with heavy infrastructure or high costs, which greatly strengthens the community. The low maintenance also helps the community because local cleanup crews do not have to spend too much time cleaning the trap, this way their valuable time can be pushed elsewhere instead of on the project.
Long-term Goals
As described by Storm Water Systems, the long-term goals for this installation are to help local alliances track the litter patterns and encourage watershed protection, as well as preventing degradation of wider aquatic habitats and reduce macro-plastic contamination further down the river system.
