The creeks and banks of Napa County waterways became a bit tidier Saturday afternoon as hundreds of volunteers participated in Creek to Bay Cleanup Day.

Close to 600 volunteers from all walks of life gathered at various sites up and down the Napa River, Upvalley, Lake Berryessa and American Canyon to collect garbage. Napa County Resource Conservation District and Flood Control District along with Napa Recycling and Waste Services sponsored Saturday’s event that’s also part of International Coastal Cleanup Day, an effort to clean the world’s beaches and waterways.

Bottles, old tires, camping supplies and dirty diapers were just some of the nasty things that Rick Thomasser and Thomas Rowlands came across while volunteering at Napa Creek.

“All this ... it really kills the environment,” said Rowlands, a 14-year-old freshman at Justin-Siena High School.

Rowlands said when he heard about the event through his earth science class he decided to sign up, in part to earn a bit of extra credit. Thomasser, the operations manager for  the Napa County Flood Control and Conservation District, said that he’s noticed less garbage at Napa Creek this year due in part to a similar cleanup that occurs on Earth Day.

“I think that it helps doing it twice a year,” he said.

Rowlands and Thomasser collected garbage at the creek near the Napa Cinedome; Meanwhile Joey Pader, 19, and Elli Niles, 18, cleaned the creek in the Redwood Road area.

A table top, pottery, garden hoses, mangled blinds and oil canisters lined the bed of Pader’s truck. Niles and Pader said they decided to volunteer because a friend asked them to.

“Napa is a pretty place and we need to keep it clean,” said Niles as she unloaded the truck at the Downtown Napa collection site.

In all, about 20 volunteers gathered behind the Napa Firefighters Museum on the corner of Main and Pearl streets to clean what some say is the filthiest creek in the valley.

“The difference with Napa Creek is that it’s very polluted,” said Anita Howe, Downtown Napa site captain and one of the founding members of In Harms Way, Citizens for Napa Creek Neighborhood Flood Protection. “It’s very full of homeless (people) and they live in this thing. So it’s a pretty messy cleanup at Napa Creek.”

At Kennedy Park near Napa Valley College, a team of 90 or more college professors and students, kayakers and boaters scoured the riverfront to look for trash. Most volunteers found plastic and glass bottles, some found tires and others found an old refrigerator.

“Certainly the trash in the river system affects all manner of wildlife,” said Michael McKeown, president of Napa Valley Fly Fishers — one of the groups that volunteered. “If we don’t take care of our water system, it’s our own existence at risk.”

Napa County Resource Conservation District coordinator Stephanie Young said volunteers at Lake Berryessa and Napa alone picked up 6,000 pounds of garbage and 3,600 pounds of recyclable items.

Down the road in American Canyon, more than 100 volunteers, armed with donated yard bags and plastic gloves, fanned along residential streets east of Highway 29, at city parks and along dry creeks to collect more than 7 1/2 cubic yards of trash and recyclable items.

Among the volunteers were residents of all ages, including elementary, middle school and high school students, scouts, and the city’s mayor, Leon Garcia.

Pete Enriquez, of American Canyon, said volunteers keep the community clean and proud.

“I like to preserve the cleanliness of our city,” said Enriquez, who volunteers every year for the city’s annual cleanup event.

Laura Nuno said she planned to come out with her 9-year-old daughter, Jessica, to clean up the environment. She also brought along nephew Ricky Nuno, 11.

“I thought it’d be something good (to do) instead of staying at the house all day,” Nuno said.

Within two hours, municipal public works trucks hauled away about 8 cubic yards of items discarded over time. There were orange plastic yard-size bags filled with non-recyclable trash; blue bags filled with recyclable cans, glass and paper;  smaller white plastic bags filled with cigarette butts as well as tires, shoes, a video game player, a bullet and the most unusual item of the day — a satellite dish dumped near Highway 29.

Volunteers said they were surprised at the mound of trash they found.

“I didn’t think there would be a lot of trash here,” Angele Efe, 17, a senior at Vintage High School, said as she walked along Eucalyptus Drive near Highway 29.

Monica Geraldi found prescription lens and a dozen bullet casings along Lombard Road, a road that parallel Highway 29.

“It’s really quite sad, actually,” said Geraldi, as she wondered whether to place the bullet casings in the recyclable bag.

The morning cleanup ended with a barbecue at the city’s Recreation Center on Elliott Drive, where the city schedules most of its public meetings.

In Napa County in 2007, more than 400 volunteers picked up close to 8,700 pounds of trash and more than 8,500 pounds of recyclable items, according to the Napa County Resource Conservation District.