MOBILE, Ala. — Organizers of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service cleanup at Eslava Creek planned to press ahead despite the threat of rain, with volunteers set to gather as much litter as conditions allowed along the urban waterway south of downtown.
The event has become a fixture of Mobile’s MLK Day observances. Registration opened at 8:30 a.m., with gloves, bags and safety vests distributed before volunteers fanned out along the creek banks at 9 a.m.
Past turnouts have shown what the effort can accomplish. Two years earlier, on a bitterly cold morning, hundreds of volunteers trudged the creek in yellow vests and hauled away hundreds of pounds of junk and trash that had collected along the water.
A creek with a history of problems
Eslava Creek drains a wide swath of west and central Mobile, and its banks have long drawn cleanup crews. The Mobile Area Water and Sewer System has previously pointed to debris and improper disposal around the creek as part of costly maintenance headaches, while groups such as Dog River Clearwater Revival have worked downstream to keep trash from reaching Mobile Bay.
Organizers said every bag collected on the holiday keeps litter out of the storm drains that feed the creek — and ultimately out of the bay.