HANOVER TOWNSHIP -- Temperatures certainly did soar on Monday, but the heat didn't keep a group of people from cleaning up near Solomon Creek in Luzerne County. You'll never believe all the junk they found.
This group of volunteers isn't digging up treasure. They're digging up tires, among other things.
"Plastic bottles, liquor, liquor bottles, beer cans, baby car seats. I've seen it all," said Terri Johnson, of Hanover Township.
$10,000 in grants paid for EPCAMR and a group of Wilkes University students to clean up Nockley's Tributary along South Main Street in Hanover Township. Most of the water here runs underground. Above ground was covered in trash.
"It was like weird seeing everything underneath the soil and the tires. We didn't know really where everything came from," said Wilkes freshman Dianna Connor.
But organizers say most of the junk, ad probably been laying here for 10 to 15 years.
Organizers say about 140 tires were cleared out of this tributary, and they say that cleaning it up will help prevent flooding in this area.
"As water flows through here, it's going to be able to spread out and settle down and just sort of dissipate the energy of the water before it goes down to the creek, causing further potential for flooding damage," said cleanup organizer Robert Hughes.
Hughes say the parking lot behind St. Peter's Lutheran Church is usually the first place to be flooded. Those who helped out say they hope that won't happen again.
"It was pretty tough but it was worth it," said Connor.
This tributary is right near a pipe near Solomon Creek that leaked raw sewage earlier this year. That pipe has since been repaired and the sewage cleaned up back in January.