Lake Hopatcong Cleanup Draws 400+ Volunteers

More than 400 volunteers from the towns neighboring Lake Hopatcong turned out Saturday for the Lake Hopatcong Foundation's lake cleanup event. 

The cleanup was done in connection with the drawdown of Lake Hopatcong, which is done every five years. This year's five-foot drawdown began in September, and the effort left debris visible around the lake's perimeter. The LHF cleanup recruits volunteers from Hopatcong, Sparta, Jefferson, Roxbury and other nearby towns to come for one morning to help remove the debris and make the lake cleaner.

By all accounts the event was a success, and that's evident on the faces of a group of cleanup volunteers from Weichert Realtors' Roxbury office who sent Patch a photo from Saturday's activity. The Weichert group said they kept busy, covering four sites and pulling more than 30 tires and 20 bags of garbage out of the lake. 

LHF President Jessica Murphy told Patch that the Weichert haul was just part of what was found in the waters of Lake Hopatcong Saturday: hundreds of tires, countless cans and bottles, a lawnmower, a couple of bikes, a fishing pole, and a mannequin were some of the debris retrieved by volunteers.

"Some of it was really random," said Murphy. "People found thousands of cans and bottles, bikes, a car dashboard, a leather jacket... When I call this a 'success,' it's in quotes, because this stuff shouldn't have been in the lake in the first place. 

"The success is that it's all out now and the lake is cleaner for everyone."

Murphy said the foundation will share debris tallies once they are available but in the meantime she wanted to issue thanks to all "who dedicated the time to make our lake cleaner."