Our Spring 2009 campaign will saturate the lake, focusing on the lower part where campers have polluted the habitat and the upper part, where storm water runoff fills the lake with debris. One additional focus will include Riversbend and Poole Knobs islands. These two islands have massive deposits of dumping and debris from years of disrespect and neglect. Here's a recent photo from Riversbend. You can see we need your help:

From a broad perspective, as Percy Priest's islands accumulate tons of human-imposed debris each season, the metals and plastics leach chemicals into the water and threaten the habitat for aquatic species and birds beyond Tennessee. In fact, Percy Priest trash could be flowing all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and into the Dead Zone.

All that waste has a dramatic impact on the integrity of the environment in Middle Tennessee. Cigarette butts, for example, threaten wildlife and aquatic animals that mistake them for food. The filters block their digestive tract, and the animals become ill or starve. Animals will also ingest hazardous compounds such as cadmium, arsenic, lead and nicotine (of course) that are absorbed by the filters. Of course, it all has an impact on our reputation, too.

Here's another illustration of the problem: