September 20, 1997 — The city of Santa Clarita holds its third annual River Rally cleanup event at the south fork of the Santa Clara River.

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About 200 people trudged the dry south fork of the Santa Clara River on Saturday picking up discarded waste for Santa Clarita's third annual river cleanup effort celebrating National Pollution Prevention Week.

Hundreds of people participated by walking the river bed, running under Magic Mountain Parkway between Valencia Boulevard and San Fernando Road, and viewing exhibits provided by local agencies and merchants.

"The event has been extremely successful this year," said Jeanne Geno, the director of River Rally '97 and a stormwater utility information assistant for the city of Santa Clarita. "We are trying to raise awareness of environmental issues in the Santa Clarita Valley."

In a reference to the possible heavy rains caused by the predicted El Nino storm conditions, Geno said, "Anything we can do to clean up the river before the rain begins will be of great help."

Volunteers worked from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. picking up trash during the river rally, a joint effort between the City of Santa Clarita and Los Angeles County.

"We like to use the South Fork Trail for roller blading and bike riding so we came to clean up the trash," said Melanie Cotterell of Saugus, as she walked the river bed with her three-year-old daughter Emily.

Joann and Jim Briece of Newhall, along with their daughter Rebecca, 10, expressed concern about the condition of all of Southern California's water supply.

"We're concerned about the environment," Joann Briece said. "So, I figured we'd come out and give something back to the community."

After the cleanup, volunteers had a chance to view over 20 exhibitions, set up just off the west bank of the river, aimed at educating the public about environmentally sound products, recycling, transit programs and water quality issues, among other things.

Handelman Link Corporation, working with the city, use a model to demonstrate the effects of polluted runoff water on the ocean.

The model was complete with houses, streets, storm drains, a river and an ocean front. As curious people approached, a supervisor would have them spill a color liquid, representing either pesticides or oil and grease, onto the model. When washed off, the liquid would run into the ocean portion of the model and accumulate into a dirty pool.

"We need events like this to stop pollution before it gets into our water supply," said Corletto, who works for Handelman and ran the beach cleanup stand.

Overall, this year's events in conjunction with National Pollution Prevention Week have been "extremely successful," Geno said.

The amount of trash cleaned up this year will not be known for a while, but Geno expected it might be around last year's total of 50 tons.