WRITTEN BY: ADAM WEINZAPFEL,
KTNRB AMERICORPS MEMBER
The weather is warming up; the sun is shining longer; and the wildlife is out and about. As you (and your family) enjoy a walk to take in the blossoming surroundings, why not help protect their habitats by bringing a bag to pick up litter that gets caught in storm drains?
If left unchecked, this trash will eventually find its way into the rivers. However, if you and your family make a point to take action, the sight of trash is no longer a disappointment—it’s an opportunity. You get to turn your evening into a small-scale cleanup, leaving your community’s image looking cleaner and its surrounding environment a little healthier.
Because of the nature of stormwater, trash tends to collect in the local infrastructure that guides it, like drainage ditches, culverts and storm drains. While ditches and culverts really aren’t the easiest to reach on a casual walk with the family, storm drains are by far the easiest to both see and access. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’re already familiar with a problem storm drain in your neighborhood.
If you think this opportunity sounds interesting, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful has a program designed to get you started.
As part of our Adopt a Storm Drain program, we will send you cleaning supplies and guidelines to help support your efforts while you do monthly cleanups and report your trash collected back to us. Remember that these cleanups really are just as simple as taking a trash bag with you when you go for a walk, and the online reports are just as simple.
If there are storm drains in your neighborhood, then you have the chance to make a difference. Why not sign up? Just go to https://www.keeptnriverbeautiful.org/stormdrain.
We’ll get a care package shipped out to you, and you’ll get to turn your evening stroll into quick and easy community service.
