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Americana Drive Cleanups
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Veterans Day - November 11, 2025
😦 Due to "unfortunate circumstances" we are here on Americana Drive for another cleanup 😦 This sign spotted in a car window says it all We had some weather challenges today, with chill temperatures and blustery winds. Still, the day was clear and dry, so otherwise favorable for a cleanup. As usual, the cleanup was in cooperation with the Fairfax County Restoration Project. We were also supported by Team Rubicon, Wounded Warrior Project, and by The Vistas apartments. Thank you Team Rubicon, Wounded Warrior Project, and The Vistas! Thank you also, to representatives from the Braddock District Supervisor's office, and from supervisor candidate Rachna Sizemore Heizer for coming out in support of our efforts today. Our 59 volunteers removed 208 bags of trash, 22 tires, 2 toilets, 1 shower base, 2 sinks, 1 backyard slide, 2 Santa figurines, 1 Santa's sleigh, 1 ice chest, 2 TV's, 1 bathroom scale, 1 mower catcher basket, 3 mattresses, 1 electronic typewriter, 1 printer, 1 fire extinguisher, 1 shop vacuum, 3 five-gallon buckets of joint compound, 2 five-gallon buckets of tractor hydraulic fluid, 2 five-quart bottles of motor oil, 1 snow tube, 1 three-wheeled motorcycle, 1 child car seat, 1 eighty-foot length of 3" diameter orange plastic conduit, and a guesstimated 2.3 tons of miscellaneous debris, mostly construction items. We were appreciative of the neighbor who appeared near the end of the day, driving his white pickup truck along Americana Drive while he retrieved salvagable metal items for sale as scrap. It was good to know some of what we collected would be put to a better use than being discarded as rubbish. Depressing levels of illegal dumping continue to plague Americana Drive. Our appeals to conscience and the example set by our cleanups have had little effect. We hope the study commissioned by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will produce imaginative solutions. Too bad VDOT was not as quick on the job as the scrap collector. A delay in removing the collected trash caused a negative article in Annandale Today
Clean the Bay Day - June 7, 2025
Young Men's Service League ready to begin the cleanup Our day started off with steady rain as we were setting up, but as the volunteers began to arrive, the sun broke through to provide a great one for a cleanup, with clear skies and temperatures in the mid 80's. As usual, the project was in cooperation with the Fairfax County Restoration Project, and hosted by The Vistas Apartments. We enjoyed support from several new and returning today - Team Rubicon, Young Men's Service League - Hunter Mill and Boy Scout Troops 829. Thank you Team Rubicon, Young Men's Service League, and Troop 829! We were also pleased to be joined by Delegate Vivian Watts. Our 53 volunteers, young and old, managed to remove 137 bags of trash, tires, closet doors, paint cans, oil containers, a mobile phone, and roughly .75 tons of assorted construction debris, including a toilet. The day is never complete on Americana Drive without finding a discarded toilet. Forty-seven of the bags collected today were actually the result of a cleanup a few days earlier conducted by Operation Stream Shield, a Fairfax County program to employ shelter residents. If you see collections of distinctively gray trash bags anywhere around the county, you can know that Operation Stream Shield was at work. Trash and dumping conditions were relatively light today, by Americana Drive standards. After several years of regular cleanup, we have completed the "archaeology" phase. finally having removed all the layers of dumped material accumulated in years past. One small, but unique, find today was a good fortune amulet featuring symbols of prosperity such as horseshoes, snakes, corn, and currency. Improper parking above the curb is an unfortunate practice along much of Americana Drive. With the street not being quite wide enough for two-way 30 mph traffic with parking on both sides, vehicle owners are understandably apprehensive about properly parked vehicles being struck. Still the practice has left large stretches of soil bare and churned into muddy puddles. Mosquito larvae were evident in those puddles today, making the issue also one of public health. Cheasapeake Bay Foundation statement
Presidents Day Cleanup - February 17, 2025
We were joined by groups from Team Rubicon, Northern Virginia Ethical Society, the Prince of Peace Church Youth Group, and members of a kindred watershed group from across the Potomac, the Muddy Branch Alliance. Operation Stream Shield, a Fairfax County work program for shelter residents, makes our task easier by making regular visits to clean along Americana Drive. Unfortunately, the dumpers and litterbugs are at work 24/7. In three hours of work, the volunteers removed 125 bags, 7 tires, 2 heavy machine tires, 5 5-gallon motor oil containers, 20 5-quart motor oil containers, 1 bottle jack, 1 TV, 2 5-gallon paint containers, 2 1-gallon paint containers, 2 mattresses, 1 sofa, 1 toilet, 1 baby stroller, 1 wheeled carry-on,, 2 5-gallon drywall compound containers, 1 shopping cart, 1 snow sled, 1 auto bumper, 1 1-gallon coolant container, 1 5-gallon cooking oil container, 1 1-gallon lacquer thinner container. and a guesstimated total of 1.5 tons of miscellaneous debris.
Drill, baby, drill? We struck oil today on Americana Drive, finding 50 gallons. 😞
Cleanup Photos
Illegal Dumping Resolution - February 4, 2025 Supervisors Walkinshaw and McKay presented a joint resolution to the Board of Supervisors asking the County Executive to review the EQAC memorandum on illegal dumping and report back to the Board by the end of fiscal year 2025. Supervisor Walkinshaw also asked that the report propose any new strategies that could help mitigate illegal dumping. Thank you to everyone who contacted the Board of Supervisors in support of the resolution!
VDOT Northern Virginia Adopt-a-Highway Map
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