A large wheel has been strolling the Baltimore Inner Harbor the past month, doing its best to clean the trash that has littered a city landmark and tourist attraction.
It’s called theInner Harbor Water Wheel, and though it moves slow, it has the capability to collect 50,000 pounds of trash. The timing for John Kellett’ssolar-poweredcreation is crucial—hands and crab nets simply can’t keep up with the growing amount of wrappers, cigarette butts, bottles, and other debris carried from storm drains into the harbor.
“It looks sort of like a cross between a spaceship and a covered wagon and an old mill,” says Kellett toldNPR. “It’s pretty unique in its look, but it’s also doing a really good job getting this trash out of the water.”
Graphic courtesy of Healthy Harbor.
The wheel has become an integral part of theHealthy Harbor Waterfront Partnership Initiative. It receives power from the Jones Falls river’s current near the harbor, which turns the wheel and lifts trash from the water into a dumpster barge. Solar panels keep it running when the water current isn’t enough.
Healthy Harbor hopes to make the body of water swimmable in less than six years, and the Water Wheel could be a big part of that.
“The water wheel has been a time-saver for us,” said Bill Flohr, who runs Baltimore Harbor’s East Marina. “It seems to be collecting probably 95 percent of what we normally had to pick up by hand.”
