Adopt a Drain Cassie Cordova City of Clearwater

The city of Clearwater is asking residents to adopt some of its thousands of miles of storm drains to keep them clear of debris. We speak with the city's Cassie Cordova about the Adopt-a-Drain program. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordenbird here Beyond the News. You've seen those signs that
show where people or companies have adopted a stretch of
road and keep it free of litter. The City of
clear Water is adopting that strategy in a way for
storm drains to keep them free of litter and debris.
Cassie Cordova is the Sustainability and Environmental Division manager in

(00:22):
the Public Works Department with the City of Clearwater, and
she's here to talk about the city's adopt a Drain program.
Cassie Cordova, welcome to Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Of course, you're a city that sits on the Gulf
and the intracoastal and Tampa Bay, so Clearwater has a
strong interest in keeping all of those bodies of water clean,
and public Works has the responsibility to keep the drains clean.
And you are funded by taxpayers to make that happen.
So let me ask, why are you asking for volunteers

(00:59):
for that.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
That's a great question. So we are responsible for keeping
our storm drains clean. However, we have several thousand storm
drains in the city limits that are city owned, so
unfortunately we don't have the manpower to go out on
a regular basis and get all those storm drains clean.
We do our best with our street sweeping program that

(01:23):
is very active, that's year round we go out and
sweep the streets. But this is a way for our
citizens to help get involved and make sure those storm
drains are clean so that we can be prepared in
case we need those storm drains clean, particularly if a
storm's upcoming. But just overall, keeping those storm drains clean

(01:44):
prevents flooding and any of that litter or debris going
out into our waterways.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
So obviously timing is very important when you encounter an
event like a hurricane that could lead to flooding. Now,
what are you expected to do when you adopt a drain,
So similar.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
To our other city programs, we would hope for an
adoption of a two year period and we suggest monthly
or quarterly if you could go out in your daily
walk or whenever convenient and just have a look at
your storm drain and if you see any debris, leaves, litter,
anything that you can clear out, we would ask that

(02:24):
you would go ahead and remove that. And then there
is a quick form on our adopted drain portal that
you would just go in and say, you know, I
went out. Put in the date. You could approximate how
much you cleared out one pound, two pounds, and that's
pretty much it. You just submit the form we do
if it is too cumbersome to keep up the forms,

(02:46):
if you're going out every day, that's you know, we
don't expect you to fill out the form that frequently.
Just if you could go ahead and update the form
somewhat regularly so that we know that you're active in
adopting the drain. So that's really all just going outing
it up and submitting some forms so that we can
keep track of all that data.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Who is eligible to adopt a drain in clear.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Water so any Clearwater resident and that could be a group,
an organization, just an individual homeowners association, anybody that wants
to commit to adopting the drain.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Now, let's say that you commit to that and you
do a pretty good job keeping the drain clear, and
the neighbors take note and say, hey, you're doing a
good job with that. Do you get any recognition from
the city for adopting a drain and keeping it clean?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Absolutely, So, when you do adopt the drain, you will
receive a welcome packet that gives you all sorts of information.
You'll also receive a yard sign that you can choose
to put out into your yard that says what you're doing.
And then when you do submit that form that I
was talking about, when you do those cleanups, there is
an option to include a photo, So we would definitely

(04:02):
encourage folks to go ahead and include a photo, and
then we would love to share that on our social media,
our my Clearwaters newsletter, my Sustainability newsletter, so that we
could help get the word out. Like you said, once
neighbors see other neighbors doing it, and hopefully that would
inspire them to go ahead and adopt another dream.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
And the web addressed to find out more information is
my Clearwater dot com slash adopt a drain. Cassie Cordova,
Sustainability and Environmental Division manager in the Public Works Department
for the City of Clearwater, Thank you for joining us
on Beyond the News.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Thank you