Ahead Of Bassmaster Classic, GRDA Begins Grand Lake Spring Cleaning

It's spring cleaning at Grand Lake as the lake prepares to host the Bassmaster Classic.

It looks like something you might find at a rock quarry, but on closer inspection, it's actually Styrofoam, used to keep docks afloat.

"As you can see it's all shapes and sizes," said Grand River Dam Authority spokesperson Justin Alberty.

The GRDA has been collecting old dock Styrofoam for the past couple of weeks.

Grand Lake businesses and dock owners have been helping get it all together and placed in piles all around the lake.

"We've seen it piled on pontoon boats, on dock barges and things like that, where they've gathered this foam and taken it to these sites," Alberty said.

Now the GRDA is asking for help from the public.

Alberty said with the Bassmaster Classic only a few weeks away, it's important for the lake to look its best.

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GRDA is asking anyone who sees dock foam along the shoreline to bring it to the collection sites.

"From the piles I've seen, I'm already amazed at what's already been collected, and I know that this is day one of a several-day endeavor," Alberty said. "So who knows? It may double, triple, who knows how much foam we'll get?"

If citizens decide to go Styrofoam-hunting, GRDA encourages safety, because even though it is just Styrofoam, it is still heavy.

GRDA will load the piles on a truck and transport them to a recycling center.

Grand Lake has more than a thousand miles of shoreline, and Alberty said it will truly take a team effort to clean up..

"When the lake comes up and goes down, sometimes it'll get hung up in the brush or the shoreline and then it may eventually float back into the water," he said. "So… we're lucky we have some good weather here for this as well."

GRDA is asking that you pick up foam and bring it to the parking lots at the Clearwater Bay Marina, east of Disney; the Shangri-La main boat ramp; GRDA's hangar boat ramp at the Red Arrow Marina; Red 11 Marina, east of Sailboat Bridge; the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Grove; or Discount Docks at the back of Duck Creek.

They'll collect the foam from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., until Feb. 10.