The haul – which netted some 475 pounds of trash – is part of the command’s efforts held around Clean the Bay Day, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s longest running annual litter cleanup campaign.

According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, more than 165,000 volunteers have collected more than seven million pounds of debris along 8,250 miles of Chesapeake Bay shoreline since 1989.

Event co-coordinator Tim Wenk who works as a supervisory environmental engineer with NAVFAC Atlantic, was pleased with the outcome of this year’s haul.

“Despite the muggy weather and threat of thunderstorms, we had a great turnout of volunteers from the Command. The group worked hard to pick up and properly dispose of trash and debris from along the fence line of the base as well as the shoreline of the Lafayette River Annex,” said Wenk. “The Chesapeake Bay is an incredibly valuable resource for our area, so it is important for us to try anything we can to help improve the habitat and water quality of the Bay and its tributaries.”

As in years past, volunteers collected a wide assortment of litter from treated wood to microplastics, volleyballs to birdhouses. On the bright side, one volunteer even found lure, which she plans to recycle into her own personal fishing gear. To further cut down on litter generated while collecting the refuse, volunteers used recycled buckets to collect trash before transferring them to large trash bags.

At NAVFAC Atlantic, many of the same volunteers participate each year, hopeful to see their effort pay off first-hand.

“I’m passionate about controlling litter and recycling. I’m out here every year and I can’t help but think, if we all did a better job of reducing our carbon foot print and thinking about reusable products, we’d have very little to pick up each year on our shoreline,” said volunteer Paige Flores, an administrative assistant for the command’s environmental business line. “Real success would be not needing to clean our base and focus on another area on Clean the Bay Day.”

NAVFAC Atlantic has supported Clean the Bay Day and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for years, with volunteers doing far more than simply collecting refuse. Volunteers have also taken time for other restoration efforts, such as planting oyster beds just off the shoreline of Lafayette River Annex. Those oyster beds help restore the water quality in the Lafayette River, which is a part of the Chesapeake Bay.