Almost four years of recreational diving in bodies of water in Onondaga County brewed an idea among three friends who enjoy the hobby. The group’s diving made them aware of the large amount of debris and litter that occupies the rivers and lakes in their communities.
The group, Ed Kosakowski of Brewerton, John Kane of Camillus and Bill Elderbroom of Cicero, meets up regularly to dive in such locations as the Oneida River at Riverfront Park in Brewerton. Kosakowski, Kane and Elderbroom are all city of Syracuse firefighters.
With an idea to clean up the waters, Kosakowski said he and his friends were unsure of how to get a community cleanup operation underway.
The official cleanup was hosted with much success Saturday Nov. 21 at the Oneida River at Riverfront Park in Brewerton. There were several groups that pitched in to help with the event: the Cicero Chamber of Commerce, town of Cicero officials, local Boy Scouts, SUNY-ESF students and the National Aquatic Service.
All three divers were certified at the National Aquatic Service located at 1732 E. Erie Blvd. in Syracuse.
With partly sunny skies, light rain and 45 degree air, Kosakowski said the event had a great turnout with 20 divers and several volunteers. The attendants helped fill a garbage dumpster full of debris and trash found near the river and in the depths of the water. Kosakowski said he called town of Cicero Supervisor Chet Dudzinski three weeks ago to get the “green light” and have a dumpster brought to the Saturday dive. Dudzinzki arranged for a town dump truck to be at the dive site to haul away the trash that was collected.
Divers and volunteers stayed at Riverfront Park from 8:30 a.m. while the first dive took place, until about 2 p.m. when the long day came to a close. Some divers spent two hours straight searching for large items like shopping carts and park benches. These large items had been spotted by the Kosakowski, Kane and Elderbroom during their regular dives under the Route 11 Bridge.
Divers covered up to a mile down the river as they maneuvered ropes to help haul large items from the water.
Kosakowski said he and his friends wanted to help clean up the waters they dive in, but also to clean up the communities they live in.
“We chose to start with Brewerton because we dive in it regularly,” Kosakowski said. “But we also thought it would be good with the revitalization project happening in Brewerton.”
Because this was the first event, no one knew what to expect. “It’s the first one, we thought we would do something nice,” Kosakowski said. “But now we’ve seen the turnout and it’s really something we should keep doing.”
The group was thankful to the National Aquatic Service for donating official SCUBA gear for the SUNY-ESF students who helped during the community cleanup dive. Kane and Kosakowski both work part time at the National Aquatic Service because of their love for recreational diving.
Kane said the owner of the local diving store, Mike Druce, was very open to supplying the gear so that proper diving precautions were followed. After the gear was acquired and first aid equipment was organized, Kane said the group was then focusing on getting the word out.
“We definitely want to do more in the community,” Kane said after the group dive received a good response. “If this becomes and annual event we would definitely want to promote recreational diving.”
While Kane helped orchestrate from the shore because of an illness, Kosakowski and Elderbroom dove with several divers that were entering depths up to 20 feet with zero visibility during most of the time. “It took a lot of guys to dive somewhere without visibility,” Elderbroom said.
Because there are many more locations that need attention, Elderbroom said he is also hoping to make community cleanup sessions a regular activity.
“People can tell us about another area that needs a cleanup also,” Elderbroom said.
More help from the community was received with young children giving up a Saturday to volunteer while someone else wanted to be sure no one left the dive hungry.
Tom Carroll, a diving instructor at the Syracuse area store and a local dentist in Brewerton, donated all the food served at the community dive.
E-mail review@cnylink.com with your suggestion for a community cleanup dive in a body of water in Onondaga County.
