Residents and Businesses Help Clean-up Big Sioux River Saturday

Earth Day activities continued again on Saturday, as hundreds of people and a number of area businesses all over the Sioux Empire like Remedy Brewing, ISG, Avera Pace, and Schoenbeck law all did a little spring cleaning for Mother Nature along the banks of the Big Sioux River.

The annual event in conjunction with Earth Day is put on each year by Friends of the Big Sioux River.

As Dakota News Now reports, from 10 until noon, on Saturday (May 24), four different sites along the Big Sioux were set up here in Sioux Falls, along with additional clean-up locations in Flandreau and Watertown.

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The goal that day was to help pick up the trash and debris that had collected along the banks of the river throughout the fall and winter months. Another big objective of the clean-up event is to help manage the E.coli levels within the Big Sioux.

Travis Entenman, the managing director for Friends of the Big Sioux River told Dakota News Now, “E. coli gets in the river by agriculture runoff, sewage runoff, things like that, and we’re seeing high levels of E. coli."

The yearly event helps to remind South Dakota residents of all the different ways you can help make a difference on the Big Sioux River by managing things like; your pet's waste, your lawn by not having runoff, and fertilizer leaving your lawn and by making sure you always contact elected officials anytime you spot a concern regarding the Big Sioux River.

According to Dakota News Now, the event concluded with the debut of "Big Sioux Brew." A special beer created by the folks at Remedy Brewing that was made from water coming directly from the Big Sioux River. As frightening as that may sound, the word has it this special brew is actually quite good.

Big Sioux Brew was given out for free to anyone who participated in the clean-up event on Saturday.

Source: Dakota News Now