Im glad others in the comments noted the missed opportunity to collect and recycle the trapped debris instead of multiplying it and passing it to the next generation.
The ideal place to filter out polluting plastics, but no. Kick it downstream. Let someone else deal with it. And you wonder if regulation is a bad thing.
@@lairddougal3833 If you can come up with a method of filtering out plastics at that point then do be sure to patent it, because you are likely to make money from it. Plastic pollution is caused by people who dispose of it irresponsibility. Until everyone learns and applies that, then no number of grand schemes to clean it up will ever succeed.
Regulation would be to not have it there in the first place. Why is it their responsibility when it was created by others being lazy and not properly throwing away the trash they created.
@@swizlstik Not sure how often they do this but certainly not more than every six months. Likely yearly during times of high flow. The plastic accumulation therefore represents the total for the entire length of the river/catchment area for that period.
@@jeffer1101 Plastic isn't really recycled much, but about two thirds of aluminum and paper are. A third of glass is recycled, even though it is the easiest material to process. We should do better with glass, but plastic is an almost impossible nut to crack.
@@E3ECO Yes, the metals and glass are managed well. Unfortunately, there is so much plastic though and almost none of it is recycled (even if you put it in your bin). That said, I do see a lot of companies moving to more paper/cardboard type containers to reduce plastic, which is good.
That’s what called the trash gate. Most dams have one or two that all the trash and debris are designed to channel to. You will see these open up usually after major floods where everything upstream is flooded downstream. I’ve seen whole boats,jet skis piers and docks as well as whole humongous trees get washed thru when they are opened
Ah yes, let's not clear the debris here at the dam, just wash it down stream and make it their problem. Don't be responsible, shove the problem on someone else.
Large dams have always freaked me out. I remember my first time going to the Hoover dam and peering into the spillways. I thought they were the scariest things ever. Then I looked over the edge of the dam itself and felt nauseated.
I don't care for heights, It would take a lot for me to look over the side. I felt dizzy looking over the edge of a local one... it would not set any height records, but it was certainly pretty tall. At best, you'd be Stephen Hawking without the brilliant mind if you fell.
Oh this is in Laos. All the dams around where I live have giant pushers and chain link catch nets and push the debris into the backs of dump trucks. It’s pretty cool to watch
The dams in my area have areas at the dam where they can push and then remove debris like that. The debris just causes more problems down river especially if there are more dams.
@@maxwalsh234 A few hours? I think that might be a bit unrealistic. I think the answer is for people, on an individual level, to be responsible for keeping their debris out of our rivers, lakes, and oceans. I mean how hard is it for you to pick up after yourself and make sure you trash is disposed of properly? Everybody blames government and businesses but then, if they take the time and money to clean this up, their costs go up and it all ends up back at the consumer level. We, the consumers, need to take care of this problem at the most fundamental level. Pick up after yourself!
I have been on a lock and dam and the equipment to lift it out and dispose of it involves getting it to shore one excavator bucket at a time and the infrastructure to accomplish that needs to be built into the dam and gates most of which were built many years ago Just sending it down river to a place where it can be removed is often the only option and most if it ends up in the gulf Cleaning up Rivers and the ocean should be our main priority but instead we spend time and money discussing drag queens and paying off prostitutes and how many tanks and bullets to send overseas
@@kerrydowning5374 one thing you’re missing is alot off this debris is from floods. Aka garbage cans full of trash floating away, house sheds yards with debris getting swept away. It’s not all just littering…
@@kerrydowning5374 Environmentalists have seen how industry is in favor of shifting the burden for responsibility to the individual. Away from the major aggregate contributors which are the monied interests. We all share a responsibility of caretakers of the environment. If industry is to be a good neighbor, then how about the area that profits the greatest takes the lead in being a responsible member of the community.
Most of the debris appeared to be woody vegetation that was washed into the river from surrounding jungle & forested areas. In some places, the debris would be primarily plastic waste like from water bottles & various containers.
We used trash rakes and removed it from the water. After enough was piled up, it would be hauled to the dump or one of our dump sites. No need in leaving it in the water.
I c all the comments about cleaning the trash out of the debris pile but initially it starts with us not letting it get there... At 54 it seems that over the last 15-20 years the amount of trash that was thrown out of the window or blown out of the backs of pickups has gotten worse in my area. We camp quite a bit and to pass time during the day i take my bucket, trash pick and clean up our little hideout camp ground. Every time it yields 3-4 buckets of trash left behind to wash into the lake, the respect for our land seems to have diminished.
stop preaching, ya self-righteous ass. One problem does not mean the absence of another. Just because people litter does not make t OK for them just to release all that trash downstream.
It's ironic how the trash barely gets any attention while "climate change" grifters are going to save the planet from less than a 1/4 of a degree over a hundred year time period, at the cost of trillions of dollars to the consumer.
absolutely!! we need to collectively understand the value in reusable packaging, storage, and other mass-produced items!! reduce, reuse, recycle, REFUSE single-use plastics!!
Exactly what I was thinking. Why just open it up when you could at least clear the crap out first. >.> A little preventative might also stop this building up in the first place.
ask yourself how long it would take and how much it would cost to hire people with the appropriate licenses and to perform all concrete steps of the process involved of transporting an island of trees and natural debris plus plastics and separate everything. How would the separation work, would it be mechanical and require human operators? How long would it take? What would the energy costs of drying the separated wood? What would be done with the leftovers and how much would it cost to dispose of it? And various costs involved. You'll find that it will be very expensive firewood, and why it isn't done.
@@AxionSmurf ok and the reason why you pollute the debris in the river and later in the ocean is it cost money and manpower. sorry, this is thinking of the 19th. century.
It needs to be cleared out of the dam itself. It's clogging any mechanisms there, and puts extra stress on the dam. If you want to capture and recover the debris, better to do it immediately downstream where there's better access and more room to work.
@Reimund Boxhammer Which century it is has nothing to do with it. Things cost money, jobs cost money. Money is about the exchange of resources. It's just obvious, basic stuff. Do the math.
Cool. I'm happy to see your solution implemented provided you pay for it. Whatever amount of money it would cost to do as you propose it would almost certainly be more beneficial to the environment to take that money and use it earlier in the "timeline" of the waste getting to the point it has by the time this video was filmed. @@reimundboxhammer1447
The lower dam won in softball last week. So let's send them thier prize, open the upper flap Bob. Let's get this done before the EPA gets here this afternoon.
@@u1zha lol. There's probably already wood and debris below the dam, so now with this debris flowing over the dam there's extra debris for the guy down stream.
Interesting redesign of the top of the pivot gate to allow the debri to be passed over,now to design a sluce to transport the litter out of the water,or a vaccume extraction system prior to debri gate.
It's a dam stupid! Conveyor belt are you nuts there is barely any trash it's all wood and sticks, make the humans who put it there in the first place take their lives at risk removing it
Who’s wondering?? We here in the developed world see what’s known as wood or branches. Plastic is not even natural in nature like the organic debris you see in this clip. And this dam doesn’t appear to be releasing into the ocean as much as it is a river. Maybe take a little time to research before making uninformed comments.
During his training, Luke Skywalker challenged Master Yoda to watch this video without pressing the right arrow key and skipping five seconds forward, not even one time. Master Yoda accepted Luke's challenge. Master Yoda failed. The most powerful Jedi who ever lived lacked the willpower to watch this video at normal frame speed from beginning to end.
*Some 10 miles downstream, a volunteer cleaner looks over their stretch of the river...* _"Where the fu(k has all this rubbish and detritus come from?"_
A big vacuum to pull off the expanded Styrofoam and plastic bottles would have been nice. Much better to do pull it off now rather than the ocean going ships. OR maybe we can educate people, to not throw trash or stow materials better...
You cannot stop that from getting in there. Needs to start with people with trucks not putting crap loosly in the back of their truck or open bed vehicle. It all comes from everywhere. I do agree though while it is bound up here and just sitting there why is there not a method of a back hoe or something that can reach in there and kjust pull it out. It is going to get pilled up in the bottom of the catch basin, so just get it out now and be done with it
Only a bunch of Civil Engineers and hydrologists would lean over a railing and cheer when a swing gate dissipates backed up debris… ( I cheered, a little) 😂.
Even more of a shame that the trash gets to the river in the first place. The natural debris should be allowed to run down stream but the rest shouldn't be there at all.
How is this considered "clearing debris" if it's not being removed from the water? Seems as this would do even more harm than good, especially for the folks downstream getting all this muck.
Pretty satisfying! But wouldn't they want to perform this more often with smaller batches, so that they wouldn't waste so much water waiting for the mountain to get unstuck?
@@theimmux3034 In hydroelectric dams, the water upstream is routed through turbine generators within the dam. If water is allowed to flow through the spillway, that water cannot be used to generate electricity and is therefore a loss.
Here’s some food for thought, China is damming up all their rivers for two reasons. Hydroelectric power, and the ability to take control of bordering country’s food supply
How does that differ from living on a riverbank anywhere at all? Mess that gets carried by river does float by you, yes. It's not like the dam created more mess than there was in the river...
To clean all that up under a bridge. Man power and time. Plus heavy equipment that needs to be brought to the site. Talking good 100 to 200 thousand dollars.
I'm pretty disappointed that, this year, workers (edit:) WERE NOT on the debris piles, jumping up and down, placing bets on which side or what part would go first. Darn. I guess that was last year's crew, huh?
Some countries have small trash collection nets that are retracted with motorized pulley systems down stream after the damn 😂 and some have it before i personally think we should have managed/mandatory large collection before the damn for logs and large debris that would help keep the turbines and structures safe and small trash collection for small trash and debris after the damn for environmental reasons but they won’t because it doesn’t have an immediate cost effectiveness but long term the cost of cleaning up stacks compared to if they just did it at the damns lol
There are ways, it's just not profitable. If you want to fundraise and lobby for installation of extraction systems, it's good idea but not sure how many taxpayers will want to chip in.
