OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Bottles, bags, and boxes. An abundance of trash was scattered on Lake Winnebago on Sunday. The garbage was tossed about 3 miles from Merritt Avenue in Oshkosh.
“It was like they dumped their whole truck,” Don Herman explained.
Herman is the chairman of the Otter Street Fishing Club. He tells FOX 11 the group was moving bridges on Sunday when they saw the pile of junk.
By the time they came back to clean up the mess, “some good Samaritan came and picked it up, so Otter Street didn’t have to do it.”
That good Samaritan, Joe Priewe, took photos of the trash, which was shared more than 1,600 times.
Priewe declined an interview, but on Facebook, he said, “I was thoroughly disgusted but also knew that the lake and what’s in it, is just as much my responsibility as it is the next person’s.”
“Sounds like someone was out with a motor vehicle, they had cans, food wrappers, bottles, that kind of thing that ended up on the lake,” Lt. Chris Shea with the DNR said.
Shea tells FOX 11 multiple people were involved, but only one took responsibility.
“We were able to have a conversation with the suspect and resolve the situation by a citation.”
According to open records, the 19-year-old suspect was fined $200.50 for ‘discharging solid waste on public property’.
The DNR said unfortunately that much trash in one area is common throughout Lake Winnebago. If no one picks it up, Shea says there could be negative impacts.
“All that trash will end up, if it melts, it will end up in the system in the water. It affects fish and wildlife habitat, and potentially your drinking water.”
With thousands of people on the lake every weekend, Herman said it’s the public’s duty to take care of it.
“Pick up your trash,” Herman said, “That’s all you can do.”
Littering can be reported to the local sheriff’s office or to the Wisconsin DNR at 1-800-TIP-WDNR.
