Several cars pulled from Ohio River in cleanup operation

CINCINNATI — Cars are being pulled from the Ohio River in bulk for the first time ever, according to our news partner WCPO in Cincinnati.

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The Hamilton County Police Association’s (HCPA) Underwater Search and Recovery Unit is working with Living Lands and Waters, a nonprofit organization, in the nation’s largest cleanup effort to date.

“I know we’ve never had anything of this magnitude before,” said Cincinnati Police Interim Chief Lt. Col. Teresa Theetge. “One of them maybe like a 1940s/1950s car. Doesn’t mean they’ve been down there since then, but probably been down there a while.”

The HCPA dive team has been using new sonar technology to scan the river for the past river, WCPO reports.

It has helped divers identify and tag the cars but they could not fish them out without the necessary equipment and machinery. They began working with Living Lands and Waters to do the heavy lifting, WCPO says.

“[They were] working and labeling them with a little buoy here and there, then we came to town with our excavator and operations here to remove with the dive team as they go under and mark the cars for us to then pick up with our excavator,” said Callie Schaser, communications specialist for Living Lands and Waters.

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There are 26 miles of Hamilton County shoreline and 10 cars have been pulled from the river in just four days, according to WCPO.

The weeklong operation began last Friday and ends tomorrow but recovery efforts will continue, the Hamilton County Police Association tells WCPO .

“Some of these cars have been in there 30, 40, 50 years and when they’re in the water that long, they’re very, very difficult to identify and figure out why they were out there,” said Chris Fritsch, HPCA Dive Team Commander. “Obviously more objects or vehicles could have floated out farther into the river so that makes it more challenging and that’s why this is an ongoing project that we need to work on to be fully that we’ve covered it all.”

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