What:              Employees from Alabama Power’s Plant Gaston and community volunteers will remove debris from Lay Lake on April 7 as part of the reservoir’s 13th annual Renew Our Rivers effort. Participants will meet at Richey’s Resort located at the plant at 7 a.m. The cleanup will conclude at noon with a picnic lunch.

                        This Renew Our Rivers cleanup is coordinated by Alabama Power employees with support of plant management. During 2011 cleanups, 550 volunteers removed more than 11 tons of debris from the lake. More than 430,000 pounds have been removed from Lay Lake during volunteer cleanups since 2000.

Overview:      Volunteers for Renew Our Rivers, one of the Southeast’s largest

river cleanups, have collected more than 12 million pounds of trash and debris since the program’s inception in 2000. This year, 29 cleanups are planned through October on the Alabama, Black Warrior, Cahaba, Chattahoochee, Coosa, Mobile and Tallapoosa rivers.

Directions:     From Birmingham, take U.S. Highway 280 East. Turn right onto Alabama 25 South in Harpersville. Plant Gaston is on the left.

Contact:         Volunteers should contact Oren McKinney at 205-288-5077, Sheilah Lee at 256-401-3342 or Byron Corina at 205-669-8301.