You might think the ocean is littered with garbage, but small waterways are too.
Environmental students from the University of Illinois Springfield picked up litter from the Springfield Lake Marina Tuesday.
Not only are they cleaning garbage from the lake, but researching just how much Illinois water is polluted.
"We've moved past the element of surprise and now we're just trying to see what steps we can do to encourage the community to clean up litter and prevent it from getting here in the first place," Ann-Marie Hanson, an environmental studies professor, said.
The students will now sort all the garbage they find, count it and weigh it.
This story aired on Fox 55 News on April 23, 2019.
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