Even though he hunts a lot, his quarry never goes away. He finds it on Buffalo Bayou, a river that goes through the country's fourth largest city and ends at its port. He and his deckhand, who has been with him for many years, headed on a small barge to a floating boom they had set out on the water the day before.
As the boom swung into view, Bayou Dave said, "Ah, isn't that sweet?"
The huge embrace of the boom was what they were looking for and they knew they would find a lot of trash.
A toy airplane, a yellow football, a foam egg carton, and a nail salon pink flip-flops were on display. Styrofoam cups and disposable dental picks were on display. There were bottles that used to hold water, Coca-Cola, and other drinks.
Mr. Dennis and Mr. Rivers went to work after Mr. Rivers moved the barge over to the island of garbage.
Houston has more than 200 square miles of urban streets that drain into Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou and carry all manner of debris to the waters.
Some people, like Mr. Dennis and Mr. Rivers, intercept the garbage before it gets to the Gulf.
The equivalent of about 250 full garbage bags are hauled out of the Bayou each week with the help of a jury rigged device.
The president of Texans for Clean Water said the pair was the last line of defense before the trash flows through two estuaries and into the bay. The pair's work was described as "endless, thankless, no reward."
Mr. Robinson told him to be a special person.
Mr. Rivers likes to work on the bayou. For the past 12 years, he has been cleaning up the waterways. Few people are more aware of its health than it is.
After Hurricane Harvey wiped out most of the wildlife in the area, Mr. Rivers spotted the first snakes he had seen in a long time. He mourns the fish killed by algal blooms, he rescues baby turtles from rafts of trash, and he enjoys the colorful spring and fall season.
Mr. Rivers said he was concerned about the entire system. The animals aren't to blame for pollution. They are directly impacted by it.
Mr. Rivers was a big fan of nature shows like "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" and "The Crocodile Hunter" when he was a kid.
He worked as a security guard, a landscaper, and a stockist at Target before he was hired to work on the bayou.
Mr. Dennis joined the crew of the barge in 2015. Mr. Dennis played high school football in Mississippi and loved the job. Mr. Dennis said he would save the world one bottle at a time. It's the best way to keep our children healthy.
More than half a century ago, environmentalists enlisted the help of George H.W. Bush, then a new congressman, in order to save Buffalo Bayou. The Buffalo Bayou Partnership was formed in the 1980's to maintain and create green spaces and hiking and biking trails along a 10-mile stretch of the Buffalo Bayou. Mr. Rivers helped redesign the barge after he became its captain.
Mr. Dennis and Mr. Rivers are experts at trash removal in the area.
Their chariot is 30 feet long and has rust on it. The barge has no seats and a hard top bimini shades its helm. A foot wide vacuum hose rests on its bow, fastened with duct tape to another massive hose that feeds a containment area below deck
Great lake. Salt Lake City's air could be polluted by a bowl of toxic dust created by climate change and rapid population growth. There are no easy ways to avoid that outcome.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Scientists said the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit a new high. Humans pumped 36 billion tons of the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere in 2011.
The U.S. performance was poor. The Environmental Performance Index, published every two years by researchers at Yale and Columbia, found that the United States had fallen behind other countries in its fight against climate change.
It was very hot. Scientists say that global warming has made the heat wave in Pakistan and India more likely to happen in the future. Since preindustrial times, the chances of a heat wave in South Asia have increased by at least 30 times.
Mr. Rivers and Mr. Dennis were wearing long-sleeve shirts, pants, and work boots when they went into the water. Mr. Dennis is muscular and has a few teeth.
The barge was steered to the edge of the boom by the sea captain. A switch was flipped, a roar filled the air, and Mr. Dennis led the hose into the air. Mr. Dennis jumped down to guide the trash towards the hose. He had sweat on his brow and his button-down.
They stopped every now and then to take the toys apart and give them to the kids.
Half a dozen blackbirds picked through the debris, while plastic bottles floated downstream. The booms are based on currents but can't catch all the trash. It may take months to patrol the entire 14 miles they are tasked with cleaning.
There was an odor of rot on the barge.
Mr. Rivers said that the smell was called bayou potpourri. The deck was splattered with brown Bayou juice after a seam where the hose met the barge split open. Mr River turned off the vacuum and said that she was feeling sick.
Mr. Dennis jumped up on the deck and patched the crack with duct tape. After an hour or so, a hatch in the deck began spitting out bits of brown matter flecked with torn up Styrofoam pellets: the containment area was full and needed to be emptied.
The equivalent of 167 dump truck loads of trash was pulled out of the waterways last year. A second team consisting of people sentenced to community service uses nets and pickers to clean harder to reach nooks and the banks. A basketball stand, couches, bags of shredded money, and a basketball hoop are on Mr. Rivers' list. He used to joke that he had not seen everything except the kitchen sink.
The amount of garbage went down during the earlier days of the Pandemic, but has since gone up. They send everything they pull out to the dump. Mr. Robinson said that when they see the trash, they don't want to take it away. He said that it is mixed with organic matter and water.
It would be a good idea to stop litter from reaching the bayou. Mr. Rivers and Mr. Robinson would like to see a bottle bill passed. In seven of the 10 states with bottle bills, beverage container litter has been slashed by as much as 84 percent. It goes into the ocean when it has no value.
Mr.Rivers is the champion of Buffalo Bayou. He appeared in local media and was interviewed by Jay Leno after posting videos of the trash-choked Bayou online. He talks to people on boat tours about where all the garbage came from.
The two men took a quick look at their work on that recent morning. Most of the plastic and Styrofoam were removed from the boom by the water.
As he led the barge up the river, Mr. Rivers reassured him that he wouldn't worry. There's more to come
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