MillerCoors, Riverkeeper clean up the Flint
MillerCoors employees join Flint Riverkeeper for cleanup project
By Brad McEwen
ALBANY — The banks of the Flint River and Lake Chehaw were buzzing with activity Friday afternoon as dozens of volunteers from Albany’s MillerCoors plant joined with members of Flint Riverkeeper for the brewery’s annual Great Water Month water cleanup event.
Due to lower-than-average water levels, this year’s cleanup did not involved boats, but instead featured volunteers combing the banks around both Cleve Cox Landing off Philema Road and the Georgia Power Dam, picking up food wrappers, fishing line, discarded beer and soda cans, cigarette butts and more.
Now in its sixth year, the river cleanup project is part of the companywide recognition of MillerCoors’ water stewardship month, during which the global corporation helps to preserve the important natural resources within the communities where its facilities are located.
According to Dedric Perkins, technical services manager at the Albany facility, MillerCoors has a long tradition of environmental stewardship, especially when it comes to water, which is the chief ingredient in its beer.
“Water is the key ingredient in brewing beer,” said Perkins. “MillerCoors cares deeply about stewardship. The Great Water Month is our largest annual volunteer event. We have over 30 volunteers from the brewery, in partnership with the Flint Riverkeeper. They’ll be cleaning different banks of water on Lake Chehaw and the Flint River.”
In addition to the general importance of maintaining natural resources, Perkins said the company’s local efforts to support the Flint are rooted in the brewery’s deep connection to the Good Life City.
“Albany is not just a work place for us, Albany is home,” said Perkins. “The Albany brewery has been in the area for over 35 years. We want to make sure that we are doing our part to protect this vital resource.”
The dedication MillerCoors has to the area’s bodies of water is also important to Flint Riverkeeper, which has a strong relationship with the brewery and its employees.
Gordon Rogers, Riverkeeper and executive director, said a retired MillerCoors employee, Paul DeLoach, was the founding board member of the water conservation organization, and that bond between the nonprofit and the Albany plant has remained strong ever since.
“We have a great relationship with MillerCoors and have had for years,” Rogers said. “It’s been very productive. It’s just a great relationship.”
Rogers pointed out that, in addition to the annual river cleanup, the company has also worked with Flint Riverkeeper on a variety of other issues and has always made sure to include the conservation group in strides the brewery is making in the realm of environmental stewardship.
“The cleanup is kind of a public manifestation of it, but the relationship is much deeper than that,” said Rogers. “They’re doing really good stuff at the plant in terms of water and air conservation and they’ve not only allowed us a peek at that, they’ve had a dialogue with us on stuff like converting from coal to natural gas, water efficiency, wastewater treatment. There’s just been a great dialogue over the years.
“And they produce such great people that are public-minded. And, of course, not everybody when they get involved in the community wants to get involved in environmental work. I mean everybody’s involved in something if they’re civic-minded. There just happens to be a cadre of folks at MillerCoors that loves the river, so that just kind of naturally spills over into conservation work.”
While the partnership has helped impact policymaking at the state capitol and helped aid the Riverkeeper in its quest to keep water volume in the area at optimal levels, cleaning up the area’s rivers, lakes and streams is vitally important as well.
“This is important work,” said Rogers. “The air we breathe and the water we drink — and make money off of — that and the land, those are our three most important resources. The land around here is not much without the water. That’s the simple way to explain it. So the cleanliness matters.”
Current Flint Riverkeeper board president David Dixon, a MillerCoors retiree who worked more than 33 years with the company, estimates that over the years the cleanup has helped to pull roughly 20 tons of debris out of the area’s waterways and from their banks.
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