From a pontoon boat meandering down Wolf River Harbor on a sparkling spring day, Hart Robinson and his friends caught sight of the odd structure mounted on pilings near the shore and weren’t quite sure what to make of it.

A new place to dock? A fishing pier?

Actually, it was neither. But Robinson was glad to hear that the purpose of the new structure adjacent to the Bayou Gayoso Pumping Station at Front and Saffarans is to capture trash as it enters the harbor.

“You get a good rain and the water’s covered with trash,” said Robinson, 31, of Memphis.

A contractor for the city of Memphis recently completed a floating “trash rack” at the pumping station. It should do more to improve local water quality than just about any other project in recent memory, officials say.

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