Just a few weeks ago, a record 721 volunteers collected 54,075 pounds of trash from the island.
It was the annual adopt a beach winter cleanup organized by the Texas General Land Office. SPI accounted for half of the volunteers and about 75 percent of the weight of the trash picked up along Texas beaches that day. Volun-teers on SPI collected the trash from five miles of shoreline and the collection was an all-time record.
The other coastal areas had 73 volunteers at eight sites who removed 18,406 pounds of trash from 30.5 miles of beach. Among those locations were Aransas Pass, Port Aransas, Rockport, San Jose Island, North Beach Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore.
Following that success from earlier this month, Boca Chica and area leaders are hoping for a similar effort on that beach. But the concept didn’t start just recently.
At last year’s Valley Environmental Summit, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Commissioner Toby Baker made a promise to attendees to return and spearhead a cleanup at Boca Chica Beach. He will follow through on that promise.
He will be joined by members of the TCEQ Harlingen Regional office.
Cameron County Commissioner Sofia Benavides, Precinct 1; Rep. Eddie Lucio, III, Dist. 38 and Rep. René Oliveira, Dist. 37 and their staff members have also been invited to participate.
