Natural Disaster Cleanup, National Semiquincentennial Celebration Initiative All Part Of This Year’s 7th Annual ‘Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series’
This Friday, March 21, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful (KTNRB) will kick off the 7th annual ‘Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series’ hosting volunteer river cleanups held within the four states touched by the Tennessee River.
The first cleanup will be held on Douglas Lake which was severely impacted by the outfall from Hurricane Helene, and it will come with an arsenal of over 100 employee volunteers from Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as well as a local company. The weekend will continue with another Douglas Lake cleanup on Saturday and a Norris Lake cleanup on Sunday afternoon, both cleanups open to the public.
Traveling from East Tennessee, through northern Alabama and Mississippi, and finishing in Western Kentucky, each cleanup will focus on a site that has been impacted by natural disaster.
Here’s the schedule for the 2025 Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup:
Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series Schedule
- Friday, March 21 @ 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.: Newport, TN | Douglas Lake
Launching from Walter’s Bridge Boat Ramp, 1459 US-25E
- Saturday, March 22 @ 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Dandridge, TN | Douglas Lake
Launching from Douglas Headwater Campground, 1680 Boat Launch Rd, Sevierville, TN 37876
- Sunday, March 23 @ 2 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Maynardville, TN | Norris Lake
Launching from Beach Island Marina, 170 Beach Island Rd.
- Sunday, March 30 @ 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.: Iuka, MS / Waterloo, AL | Pickwick Lake
- Saturday, April 5 @ 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Buchanan, TN / Murray, KY | Kentucky Lake
Kathleen Gibi, Executive Director for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, said that TVA’s Hurricane Helene cleanup efforts have impacted their volunteer cleanup planning. She said the catastrophically debris-covered areas on Douglas Lake that KTnRB had been eyeing while planning these two March cleanups on Douglas Lake no longer need cleaning because TVA and their contractors have already cleared them.
“That’s a great problem to have—to have to move downriver because areas are too clean for our volunteer group cleanup efforts,” said Gibi. “On top of that, we have many partners and volunteers stepping up with our disaster cleanup response across all four states touched by the Tennessee River, so you could say the flood damage itself is receiving a flooding response from community members who care about their river system—so inspiring!”
KTNRB is following its second year in surpassing 200,000 lbs. of trash removed in just one year, and this year they anticipate reaching the milestone of 1 million lbs. of trash removed since they put their first boat in the water in 2019.
The cleanup on Douglas Lake is also happening on the official Keep America Beautiful Greatest American Cleanup™ campaign kickoff day, which aims to remove 25 billion pieces of litter nationwide by the country’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. KTnRB worked with TVA to collaborate on this initiative, making TVA the largest agency to make the Greatest American Cleanup declaration thus far.
Cleanups in the Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series will be bolstered with the help of the national nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters (LL&W), who will bring three of their 30-foot work boats to supplement KTnRB’s two 26-foot work boats. By joining, LL&W will increase the volunteer and trash hauling capacity for each cleanup, therefore increasing the river’s impact.
TVA and TDOT’s ‘Nobody Trashes Tennessee’ litter prevention campaign fund the cleanup series, and Keep Tennessee Beautiful provides cleanup supplies.
Volunteers are still needed for each cleanup. To sign up for any of the Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series events, please visit www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org/upcomingcleanups.
