ZELIENOPLE — Hoping to build from the success of last year’s event, the Allegheny Aquatic Alliance will expand its cleanup effort on the Connoquenessing Creek from 10 to 20 miles this summer.

The second annual Connoquenessing Creek Clean-Up Celebration will begin at 8 a.m. Aug. 10 at the Beacon Hotel in Renfrew.

Food will be provided for the volunteers along with a commemorative T-shirt, and an after cleanup event with food and music is in the planning stages.

This year’s cleanup will span from Zelienople up to the city of Butler near the AK Steel plant.

Christina Handley, the alliance’s president, told the borough council Monday night the date was moved closer to summer this year with the hope of lower water levels that would help volunteers better see the garbage along the banks and in the creek bed.

Last year’s inaugural event was held on Sept. 22, where about 150 volunteers turned out in the rain and were able to remove 5,487 pounds of garbage from the creek.

The 10-mile cleanup area stretched from the Zelienople borough line, through Harmony and Evans City and up to Old Route 68.

“It was inspiring (to collect so much), yet alarming. It just shows how much work needs to be done,” said Handley of last year’s effort.

Mike Handley, Christina’s husband, said hundreds of tires were removed along with appliances, barbecue grills, televisions and even an empty burial vault that was suspected to have come from the former Yorktowne Casket Co., whose facility along the creek in Harmony flooded during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

The Allegheny Aquatic Alliance is a nonprofit organization devoted to water conservation and protection.

The group’s mission is to restore the watersheds of Western Pennsylvania to their natural state.

The entire Connoquenessing Creek watershed is about 50 miles.

In addition to volunteers, the group is looking for pickup trucks to haul the trash to designated Dumpster areas, nonmotorized boats, refreshments, food, gloves, hip waders, pry bars, rope, chains, sledgehammers and other items.

For details on the project or to donate, contact Handley at 724-371-0416 or alleghenyaquaticalliance@hotmail.com.