Adopt-A-Drain
What do ‘Raccoon Highway,’ ‘The Secret Tunnel,’ ‘Jerry’s Big Gulp,’ ‘Here Comes The Sun,’ and ‘Stormy Daniels’ have in common?
No, they’re not the newest titles at your local bookstore or kindle titles on Amazon. They’re a bit more down-to-earth than either of those options. And I really mean down-to-earth. Or to be more specific down-under-the-earth.
They are all nick names for adopted drains here in our Woodland Heights neighborhood. By adopted I mean neighbors, just like you, who have decided to pitch in and volunteer to keep clean of debris. They adopted their drains through the COH Adopt-A-Drain program.
Now before you say keeping the drains clear should be a COH job not mine you should know that there are roughly 250,000 individual curb inlets, grates, and manholes in the city's closed system located all across the city. Not to mention the Can you image how much time it would take to visit each drain to make sure they are clear of trash, leaves, and yard clippings? We might not get any other things done before the next rain came through. So there’s an adoption program that asks for ordinary citizens to help keep these drainage systems clear of clippings, leaves, limbs, and other garden debris so that nothing obstructs the flow of stormwater. Keeping the stormwater flowing is how we can help combat flooding that seems to occur in Houston when heavy rains or hurricanes pour down over our city.
Just imagine what a little helping hand addressing a storm sewer near you could do to keep the water flowing down our storm sewers keep our drains flowing clean and water out of our houses.
It doesn’t take that much more time to bag up your yard clippings and keep the drainage system clear. And the added bonus is you can come up with your own nickname for your storm sewer … just image what cool title you can bestow on your adopted storm sewer.
To find out more about how you can join the program visit the adopt-a-drain website to see where the available drains open for adoption in our neighborhood are.