One simple bright emblem led me to an awesome group of people who care about the River and how it affects them and their community.
I live in a lovely neighborhood in the great river city of Memphis, TN — about 3 miles away from the river. Going on a walk with my family, I always notice these colorful emblems on our sewer drain. I assumed these were found throughout the city, but after some investigation, it turns out that it took the initiative of my neighbors to find the emblems and install them!
Lick Creek runs through our neighborhood and, like most creeks, it drains to a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is easily forgotten that the chemicals you use in your yard, and the chemicals we use on our cars can run off in to the sewer drains, and subsequently get washed into the storm drains. We must remember that this affects what goes into the river. A group of my neighbors decided to help remind everyone by using these emblems on the drains.
Lick Creek
The volunteers came together after they heard about these emblems being available through the Storm Drains Matter initiative. They received an allotment of the emblems from our city and went out through the neighborhood and put them on the drains. Only a few other neighborhoods have also taken the time to put these out in their neighborhood. Memphis is out of emblems right now, but with the local group, Clean Water Matters, they hope to change that. Stay tuned to see if you can get some for your neighborhood too.
This is only the tip of what my neighbors want to accomplish for our neighborhood. Community involvement is a start to help bring attention to how storm drains make a difference for our River. It’s the little things that end up making a big difference for the River. You should start by becoming a River Citizen.
Can the River Count on You?
~Jessie Demster
1 Mississippi Tennessee/Kentucky Outreach Assistant
