Fourth Graders Marking Drains to Help Keep L.I. Sound Clean

by Elizabeth Paul, Town of Mamaroneck Environmental Coordinator

(April 7, 2005) Two groups of local fourth graders will be among the first volunteers in an intermunicipal effort to stop wastes from being poured down storm drains. Members of the Long Island Sound Watershed Intermunicipal Council (LISWIC), a group of 12 municipalities located in the lower Long Island Sound Watershed, have joined forces and are recruiting help in their effort to educate the public about the impacts of storm water pollution.

Where they formerly stenciled warnings on the storm sewers, local governments are now using attractive disks with the message in English and Spanish: “No Dumping – Drains to Waterway” and “ No Tire Desechos Aqui- Contamina El Agua.” Working to glue the disks on to storm drains will be students with teachers, scouts and other volunteers- both young and adult.

The first two groups of storm drain labeling volunteers will be fourth graders from Gordon Brune’s class at Mamaroneck Avenue School and David Miles’ class at Chatsworth Avenue School. Both classes will be marking storm drains located in the Town of Mamaroneck in the neighborhood surrounding Brookside Drive on Friday, April 15.

The message the volunteers are helping to impart is that storm drains and street gutters are conduits to streams, rivers, wetlands and ultimately to Long Island Sound. If you don’t want to swim in unclean water or eat fish and shellfish from it, it’s important to dispose of litter properly, clean up after your dog, don’t sweep leaves or grass clippings near the storm drain and never pour used oil down the drain.

Storm sewers are meant to catch storm water runoff, that is, rain or melted snow that is not absorbed by soil, grass or plants. Problems occur as the water washes off the land surface. The water picks up sediment, leaves and grass clippings, oil and gasoline, nutrients like phosphates and nitrates from fertilizer, pesticides and trash be it plastic or paper. The water may flow into a stream or river first, but ultimately it ends in Long Island Sound. The problem is made more severe when sidewalks and streets are swept into the storm drain and when oil, anti-freeze and any other substances except water are poured down the drain.