Chad Pregracke - Cleaning America's Rivers (1999 archives)

1999 -- Venture back in time when Chad Pregracke began inspiring others to help clean America's waterways... including Missouri's River Relief efforts.
produced by Missouri Dept. of Conservation - Missouri Outdoors TV show.
You don’t know what’s round the next bent in the river, you know? It’s like this on the river. You got slow water, you’ve got fast water, it’s always changing, you know?
Meet Chad Pregracke.
A young man with boundless energy that flows from him like the Mississippi River itself.
I grew up as a river kid. I used to go out fishing, a lot of scavenging on the islands, just picking up driftwood, things like that. And about the age of 15 I started working with my brother on a shell boat.
I also did some commercial fishing, worked on a barge, so one way or the other, I’ve always been tied to the river. I noticed how much garbage was out there, and I didn’t see anybody or anything going on to go out there and pick it up.
While in college, Chad came up with an idea he hoped would do some good and inspire others to act; the Mississippi River Beautification and Restoration Project.
The idea was simple, the task monumental.
Clean both banks of the Mississippi River for 435 miles from Guttenberg, Iowa to St. Louis, Missouri.
Wow!
This refrigerator washed up against a beaver dam is no match for Chad’s determination.
It’s an adventure. I mean you never know what you’re going to pull out.
And this day on the river has just begun.
That is sick!
Looks like a landfill, doesn’t it? Looks like somebody missed a turn!
That doesn’t need to be in the river
In under 3 years of operation on the river, an abbreviated list of Chad’s haul includes:
1598 bags of trash, 2197 tires, 126 refrigerators, 27 bedsprings, one 1970 Full sized van, 51 TVs, 194 propane tanks...
And enough styrofoam to fill a football field one foot deep! And that’s a low estimate, too!
But there’s more to keeping this project afloat than most people see.
Actually, working the phones takes more out of me than actual physical work.
Money turns the props. That’s how I say it, you know. Without my sponsors, I can’t go out there and do it. It takes a lot of money to keep it going.
I try to take the word, ‘discouraged’ out of my vocabulary and put ‘persistence there. But sometimes it’s hard because you get so many ‘NOs’. I’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done.
Then it’s back out on the water.
With his eyes on the river, Chad sees things other than trash on the Mississippi and its tributaries that concern him.
That’s a perfect example. Probably less than 10 years ago this was a good running slough with probably clams in it, you know, lots of fish, you know, and now it’s not even probably 6 inches deep. Dirt is the Bread and butter of America. And here we are just washing it away, you know. It really irks me and I’m going to hope to fight that someday too.
For today’s fight, Chad enlists help to retrieve a large tank. Even though this project often looks like a one man show, he insists it’s the hard work and dedication of many that feed the program’s success.
Teamwork gets the job done, meaning all my sponsors, my crew, everything!
It’s slipping, Dude!
Get out from underneath!
All right, that’s it. Got it!
I enjoy it. I enjoy the work. I believe in it. It’s time for something positive to happen and this is the gig. It’s the one.
Alright! Operation big mystery barrel thing done!
Well, almost.
Hold it! There it is! Yeah!!!
The job’s not over ‘til they recycle what they can.
Tires will go to a shredder or incinerator, one of the two. Metal and aluminum will go to the scrap yards.
Like a propane tank, I’ll take back to the propane place. And I don’t need any money for it, you know? I’m just happy if they take it off my hands.
For those who may doubt the sincerity of their recycle and reuse philosophy, make note of the houseboat they work out of.
It was sunk on the bottom for a day or two. It was headed for a landfill. They were going to crush it and throw it away.
So that was a recycled boat, and that’s pretty nice to say, you know, we’re living on a recycled boat.
And it’s called, ‘the Miracle’. That was the name of it. It’s a Miracle!
This man lives what he believes. And what’s more, he believes in others.
People can definitely make a difference, for sure!
I might not be picking up garbage. It might be, you know, just trying to fix up your shore front. Or maybe you live on a stream way up and you just want to fix up the stream bank. It all adds to it and it all helps, that’s for sure!
And Chad will continue his river crusade making the rivers he loves a better place for all of us.
It’s like an adventure and it’s a tough adventure, but a good adventure. That’s for sure!
Everything you do helps no matter how small.