What's at the bottom of the river shouldn't be there.

A single car sitting on the riverbed is a time bomb. It leaks motor oil, battery acid, and heavy metals straight into the current.

Tires are worse. As they break down, they release microplastics and a chemical called 6PPD-quinone — highly toxic to fish. Every tire left in the Red is poisoning the water that feeds Lake Winnipeg.

Shopping carts, mattresses, bicycles, fridges — all of it sheds contaminants as it degrades. All of it blocks water flow, damages habitat, and makes the rivers unsafe for recreation.

If we don't pull it out now, it breaks down. And once it breaks down, you can't get it out.

Working alongside Submerged Underwater Services and the RCMP, we pulled a stolen Toyota out of the Red River near Netley Creek. Reported missing in 2024, it had been sitting on the riverbed for almost two years, still full of mud, debris, and a purse left inside.

"We've removed things from the river like barber chairs," founder R.J. Kusmack told CityNews during the recovery. "Microwaves, stoves, fridges, mattresses, all kinds of things. Usually there's a little bit of a release when we're extracting it, so we do our part with having spill booms out, making sure that we clean up appropriately."

CTV ran the story. CityNews ran the story. We don't know exactly how many more cars are down there. But we know there's all kinds of things at the bottom of the river, and we're going to pull them out.

A landing craft with a one-tonne crane. Surface barriers at the tributaries to catch smaller debris before it hits the main river. A community hotline so anybody in Winnipeg can call us when they see something on the shore — and we'll come deal with it.

When the river freezes, we don't stop. Snowmobiles, augers, chainsaws. We work the shorelines and the ice-fishing zones all winter long.