2024 Shore Sweep Recap

By Bonny Putney, Vice President

Shore Sweep 2024 was a complete success, by any measurement. 85 tons of trash, 1,200 volunteers, and no injuries – it was a great day for Lake Lanier.

I usually use this space I am given to thank all the people who make Shore Sweep happen. This year I am just going to say, thank you. You know who you are, and you know we can’t do Shore Sweep without your support. The LLA staff, Victoria Clevenger and Jacquelyn Guhl, did an excellent job of making sure we thanked everyone properly.

I want to use this space to discuss the elephant in the room – why should a small non-profit have to deal with hundreds of loose dock floats in the first place? Why is this such a big issue, and is there any way to stop it? With more than 10,600 private docks, not to mention all the marinas, community docks and others, you are talking about thousands of floats. In the universe of private docks alone, we are looking at around 20,000 floats. The LLA removes on average 1,000 floats at Shore Sweep each year, and I can guarantee there are 3 times that many still floating around in the lake. Shore Sweep is an extremely expensive event even with the amount of donated services and volunteers. I would love to see that money going into derelict docks, abandoned boats and other issues that we have no control over.

This is not a COE problem; this is one issue we cannot point at them for answers. This is a self-made problem by dock owners, dock manufacturers, and dock companies. We are the problem. Dock float manufactures say if the floats are attached to the dock correctly, they will never come off – not in a storm, not by surf boats, not even a tropical storm could do it. They have pictures to prove it. My big question to all of you reading this, then why are there so many floats everywhere? The answer is pretty simple – if you were to work a Shore Sweep site you would know. Many of the floats are found in perfect condition, not a scratch on them until someone pounds a stake into them to move to a Shore Sweep collection site. We see floats with holes, and a lot of the time, they’re not in the section of the float meant to attach to the dock. We see destroyed floats, but they are uncommon. Most of the floats that arrive at the collection sites are full of water. Once breached and full of water they will not drain or dry out. Trust me on this, the water is not coming out. This is why they weigh so much and are so full of water that nothing can be done with them except to send them to the landfill. I get asked a lot, why can’t the floats be numbered or have some sort of marking so they can be returned? I want you to think about this, logistically – I have many times. Someone must gather the floats and then take them to a location off the lake. Next, you must figure out who each float belongs to, contact that person, and somehow that person must get that float back home and attached to their dock. What if they never respond? Then what? I have talked through every scenario and we, the Lake Lanier Association, know this is not practical or something that makes sense.

What makes sense is not having hundreds of floats loose in Lake Lanier. How do we stop this? We need to make sure dock companies are doing their job and attaching the floats properly and disposing of floats when they are trash. How many times have you seen a pod of floats traveling down the lake like it’s a flotilla of sorts? Floats don’t seek out other abandoned floats, this was done by someone who thinks it’s okay to just let them go. I’m sure they think LLA will handle it, or it’s only a few floats, what’s a few more in the lake? It’s up to everyone who owns a dock, works on docks and cares about this lake to stop this problem. The problem is only getting worse, and disposal is expensive if not almost impossible. Hall County bans floats from their landfill. Guess where the Hall County Shore Sweep floats go? Banks County – Hall County takes them there and pays for the disposal. This is not a sustainable solution and at some point, drastic measures might be required.

Dock owners need to look at their docks and floats. A dock is a huge investment, and you need to make sure you are getting your money’s worth. You should know your dock as well as you know your car. Docks today cost more than most cars, and just like a car, docks require regular maintenance. Flotation should be attached and disposed of properly when you need new flotation. I have been told that many dock companies use the weight of the dock to hold a float in place with no bolts or attachments at all! How is this supposed to work? It is an unacceptable business model to shove a float under a dock, and when it pops out, you just sell another float. Then, who must clean it up? LLA, of course. We recently posted a podcast about dock maintenance on our YouTube channel. If you are new to dock ownership or need a refresher, please watch it. When you require new flotation, always ask how the floats will be attached, where are the old floats are going, and for a picture taking them off the lake. You can also ask them where they take the floats for disposal. It’s not to the Hall County landfills, that I can guarantee.

The dock maintenance community needs to step up and help make this problem a thing of the past. We have outstanding dock partners who help not only at Shore Sweep but all year long by taking care of what needs to be done on the lake. Yes, sometimes they are paid, but a lot of the time they do it because it the right thing to do, and they care about Lanier. Only you, dock owners can demand we accept nothing but proper handling of dock waste on the lake. You can easily see the dock companies who step up at Shore Sweep and help us all year.

This year, we hope to get all the stakeholders in the float universe into a room to discuss how we can stop the flow of floats, and what else we can do with them besides the landfill. Water in the styrofoam is the main issue, and a big one to try and solve. It would be a much easier solution to stop the floats from appearing in our lake. Do we have the counties impose a dock disposal tax on each float purchased? Does the COE require all floats have belly bands to hold them in place? We are inching that way. I really believe that if we understand the problem, we can fix it.

I personally have been doing this cleanup a long time. Yes, it’s nice to crow about 85 tons of trash off the lake, but it should not be this way. I would be much happier if we got 5 tons of trash off the lake, and it’s done by individuals cleaning up actual lake trash like bottles, cans and the occasional grill left on an island. We should not have to use heavy, dangerous equipment, multiple dumpsters at every site and people spending their Saturday morning pulling hundreds of pounds of dock floats to a location on the lake. Congratulations to everyone who helped at Shore Sweep, it’s a labor of love. We can, as a community do better.