Miles of trash has been—and continues to be—dumped illegally along Philadelphia’s river banks.

Some of the dumping, like the floating plastic bottles and the thickets of trash that line some river banks, is easy to see. While other debris fields are disguised by woods.

Waterways conservation officers for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission are charged with looking after Pennsylvania's 86,000 miles of rivers, creeks and streams, according to The Morning Call. The armed and fully trained law enforcement check fishing licenses, respond to boat crashes and investigate spills, fish kills, the occasional body found in the water and illegal dumping.

The Morning Call has more details:

Nathan Hancock picked his way last week along a no-man's land about half a mile from where the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers meet in Southwest Philadelphia.

A feral cat pounced into thick brush as Hancock, a waterways conservation officer, moved along a dirt path, past a discarded hot tub, and stopped at a huge pile of tires, plopped along a stream that flows into the Schuylkill.

"It's sad and very frustrating when you can't figure out where they're all coming from," Hancock said. His partner that day, officer Mike Blair, nodded in agreement. "There are thousands and thousands of tires dumped along the rivers," Hancock said. "And they are breeding grounds for thousands and thousands of mosquitoes."

Read the full article here.