On May 7, a team from Red River Revival was at the Netley Creek boat launch near Selkirk, Manitoba, waiting for a car to come up from the bottom of the Red River.
The car had been spotted beneath the ice that winter. And as CTV News Winnipeg reported, it was not the only one. "The dive team removed two others yesterday, as well, so this is not an uncommon problem," said R.J. Kusmack, the group's executive director.
It Started With a Couch
Kusmack started Red River Revival after nearly crashing into a couch while boating on the Red River with his kids. The Métis-run nonprofit describes itself as a water stewardship project. Before this car, it had already pulled hundreds of shopping carts out of the river, along with a barber's chair.
A car is a bigger job. The group handled it in order.
How the Car Came Up
First, Red River Revival met with wildlife biologists to make sure the retrieval would not harm the river. Once it had the OK, it brought in a commercial dive team.
The divers hooked the car's frame to inflatable bags and floated it to the surface. Diver Ethan Hrehichuk said he expected the river's silt to have buried it about halfway, and that he would be digging by hand. It was not buried as deep as he thought, and the lift went smoothly.
Red River Revival gave the license plate number to Selkirk RCMP, which confirmed the car had been reported stolen in 2024. Mounties met it at the dock. Staff Sgt. Luc Samson said the recovery was good for the river and also helped police take a stolen vehicle off their growing registry.
Why a Car on the Bottom Matters
"These things end up sitting in the river, oftentimes for years," said Genico Aiello, a Red River Revival board member. As they break down, he said, the chemicals in a vehicle end up in the river, and the river carries them north into the lake.
That is the problem with every submerged vehicle. It goes into the water carrying a fuel tank, engine oil, ethylene glycol and a lead acid battery. Under the Clean Water Act, a discharge that leaves a visible sheen on the water is reportable. At its research site near Bemidji, Minnesota, the U.S. Geological Survey has tracked petroleum contamination persisting in groundwater for decades.
Utah has the same problem under its own water. Our Utah Waterways Submerged Debris Atlas documents an estimated 499 submerged items across 20 Utah lakes, including 56 vehicles and 103 vessels that are individually confirmed.
What We Do Now, and What We Are Building
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Today our volunteer divers carry trash out of Utah's lakes and reservoirs by hand. Since September we have logged volunteer dive cleanups at Deer Creek, Sand Hollow and Strawberry, about 93 pounds of trash by our estimate.
The vehicles will take far more than hands. We are working to start recovering submerged vehicles, and like Red River Revival, we are doing it in order: insurance, permits and commercial dive certification first.
Red River Revival runs on donations and business partnerships, and it is hoping for government funding to expand and buy equipment such as a recovery boat. Anyone building this kind of work from the ground up will recognize that list.
For the Next Generation
"We're doing it for the next generation," Kusmack said. In Manitoba, a car that sat on the bottom of a river is now on dry land. We intend to bring the same patience and care to the lakes and reservoirs across Utah.
Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit running volunteer dive cleanups on Utah's lakes and waterways and building toward the recovery of submerged vehicles and vessels. Donate or volunteer at fathomrestoration.org.
