Volunteers spent the morning cleaning up Cox Ferry Lake Recreation Area.
/ Lindsey Theis
CONWAY, S.C. (WPDE) - About 75 volunteers woke up early Saturday to clean up a trashed lake.
The Cox Ferry Lake Recreation Area in Conway has been used as an illegal dumping site for many years.
The Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge purchased it last year, and Saturday dozens of volunteers helped clean up the site with a litter sweep.
"Oh it was disgusting. There was on the banks, hundreds of beer cans like somebody had a party or something like that. Somebody found a hot tub a lot of weird things that were left in the pond or the side of the road," says volunteer Meghan Amarante, a senior at Coastal Carolina University.
Volunteers from CCU's eco-rep team, Keep Horry County Beautiful, and Waste Management all sponsored the litter sweep.
Organizers estimate they collected more than 100 bags of recyclable cans. In addition, two large waste dumpsters were filled to the brim with trash.
"This stuff could seep into your water supply, it's just bad," Amaerante said.
"Theres still a lot of work to be done out here and we will be calling on volunteers again in the future," said Jason Hunnicutt with the National Wildlife Refuge
The National Wildlife Refuge plans renovate the property with a fishing lake, boardwalk, observation towers, and hiking and biking trails.
