SAN ANTONIO —- Anyone that has ventured lately along Mission Reach on the San Antonio River may have noticed trash piling up.

The recent rains have been generous to the area, but its also washed some unwanted things to the city's Southside.

"Certainly a positive thing to have rain – we just need to work on how we dispose of our litter," said Kristen Hansen with the San Antonio River Authority.

Crews have been busy cleaning up, but too much rain is making it a challenge to keep parts of the San Antonio River garbage free.

"We have a 14 day deadline that we put on ourselves to pick all significant litter on the river banks and sometimes we’re right there at day 13 we’re about done and we get another storm and it happens all over again," said Hansen.

Hansen said the top items that end up trashing the river are made of plastic or Styrofoam. Sometimes other things also end up on the banks.

"Cups, clothes, wallets, basically, the majority of things are plastic bottles," said cleanup crew member George de la Cruz.

Trash is not only bad for the river, but also wildlife.

"In any time there’s anything foreign, so to speak, that a duck or fish try to eat, and they don’t know what it is. You know, certainly they can get caught on their beak or they can swallow it and hurt them," said Hansen.

To prevent trash from floating here, Kristen says pay attention on how you get rid of things.

"I think if you’re responsible with what you use to eat out of or drink out of. I think if you’re responsible and certainly reuseable water bottles are the best thing instead of Styrofoam cups and things like that. But, if you do have to use those, be responsible where you throw it away is really important," said Hansen.

SARA is always looking for volunteers to help clean up and protect the river. To sign up to be a Watershed Wise Warrior,  just head to https://www.sara-tx.org/watershed-wise/watershed-wise-warriors/  for more information.