More than 50 people attended Wednesday’s meeting to form an organization devoted to the Shenango River. The number exceeded the expectations of both organizers and a state official whose job is to foster local watershed groups.

Organizer Jennifer Barborak of Sharon said she was inspired to start a river-oriented organization after listening to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s speech in April in Sharon. She said Kennedy and another official of the Water Keeper Alliance told her attracting seven to 12 people at a first meeting would be "a plus."

"This was great," she said. "I never expected this."

"I’ve been to several watershed startup meetings and this is by far the best attended," said John Holden, watershed coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Protection. "I’ve been to these meetings where five or 10 people showed up."

The audience members were not timid in their views. Bruce W. Kidd of Sharon said he has wanted to clean up the river since he was a kid and is for aggressive measures.

"To me, this entire watercourse is one big cancerous sore," he said.

Ms. Barborak, spearheading the effort with her husband Rick, outlined an expansive program including water and sediment testing; waterway mapping; medical studies on the effects of contaminants in the water on residents of the area; cleanup days; reporting of problems to the appropriate local, county, state or federal agencies; education; and organizational duties from fund-raising to Web site design.

And she was not just talking about working in what is commonly known as the Shenango Valley; she envisions looking out for the entire 1,062-square-mile watershed, which stretches from Ashtabula County, Ohio, and the headwaters in marshland around Pymatuning Lake southward through three-quarters of Mercer County to New Castle. The river is 92 miles long.

Tributaries include the Pymatuning Creek in Ashtabula and Trumbull counties, the Little Shenango River in Mercer County and Neshannock Creek in Mercer and Lawrence counties.

"There’s a very large area we’re going to work in on with this project," she said.

Steven Preston of Mercer wasn’t daunted by the scope of the work.

"The pollution didn’t happen overnight," he said. "It’s not going to get cleaned up overnight. It’s going to take years and years."

Preston made the motion to start an independent organization instead of starting out as part of another group, such as the Shenango Conservancy. No one raised an arm against his sentiment.

The group chose the name Shenango River Watchers.

Ultimately, Ms. Barborak would like to join the Water Keeper Alliance, but she pulled back from wanting her group to use the methods of the alliance: suing polluters and using the settlement or court-awarded money to clean up the river.

Ms. Barborak said she would rather the group point out problems to regulatory authorities and let them use their enforcement powers. Filing suits would be a last resort, she said.

She also spoke of not trying to antagonize businesses, organizations and individuals; instead, trying to work with them and foster their cleanup efforts.

It’s easy to criticize industries that discharged into the river or continue to dump through permits from the state. But sometimes those industries can work to improve the river. Her example: Duferco Farrell Corp. in Farrell.

"Duferco has cleaned it up very nicely," she said of the shoreline. "They put up more fences to keep piles from falling into the river. We need to support some of our local industries because they’re going to do the things we want done to clean up our river."

The state has taken the position that grassroots organizations can bring about more local change than government can, and can make government efforts more effective, he said.

Grassroots groups can help identify and work to eliminate what is known as nonpoint source pollution, such as agricultural, road and mining runoff, he said.

The state has a pretty good handle on industrial, municipal and single-family sewage discharges -- point source pollution -- through its permit programs, he said.

Holden said he was glad to see that he and people such as Jim Mondok, manager of the Mercer County Conservation District and chairman of the Shenango Valley Conservancy, and Troy D. Smith and Amy Reeher of the Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District, were invited to the meeting.

DEP has $240 million available in the Growing Greener Grants Program for watershed improvements, for which Shenango River Watchers could apply.

But to do so would set it up for failure in applying for Water Keeper Alliance designation. The alliance does not give approval to state funding, Ms. Barborak said.

She said her priority will be to set up committees based on the interests people expressed, and establish a board of directors. Another meeting has not been set, but she hopes to have one in December.

"I don’t want to lose the momentum," she said. "I’m going to really try to get this going quickly."