A Derby resident is working to find out where the constant pollution in the Arkansas River is coming from after finding dozens and dozens of tires floating in the water near his backyard.

Darrell Allen has raised awareness for pollution since he moved close to the Arkansas River, even setting up some neighborhood cleanups. But, in the last few months, he’s seen a drastic increase in tires floating in the water and washing up on a sandbar near his house.

“It’s just sickening to see that many,” said Allen. “They were scattered out all the way from the area to my house.”

For many people, there are plenty of perks to living along the river. But, Allen said it’s hard to enjoy them with so much pollution.

“[We’ve] got a lot of wildlife,” said Allen. “You’ll see eagles, blue heron, geese, ducks. It’s just a shame you have to see them perched on old, discarded tires.”

This urged Allen to try to find where the problem was coming from. So, he and his son took to the waters.

“We jumped in the canoe and took it upstream about five miles,” said Allen. “We started looking from there and we didn’t have to go very far until we found a big pile of them.”

You can even see those big piles from satellite images on Google Maps.

The images show the dozens and dozens of tires floating in the water.

Allen contacted Wichita city officials since that’s where he said the source is coming from. He saw tires piled up on the bank near a Wichita business. Allen said he believes they may be using the tires for erosion prevention, but those tires are getting into the water.

Wichita Public Works and Utilities officials tell KSN they are aware of the complaint and will take action.

“We’re sending a staff person down to the location [Allen] identified to us just to do a visual and get an assessment of where the tires are and try to determine if that’s their original location or if they perhaps washed from some other location,” said Penny Feist, manager of Strategic Services for Wichita Public Works and Utilites.

Allen said he just wants to be able to enjoy his property again without the constant bother of tires and trash.

“I just want to see the river cleaned up,” said Allen.

Several city departments will meet on Thursday (May 2) in an internal meeting to discuss its findings and determine what route they need to take next.

KSN is not identifying the business suspected of being the source of the pollution because city officials have not yet confirmed whether or not that is where the tires are coming from.

Stay with KSN as we continue to follow this story.