The Drain Adopter: One Resident's Quiet Crusade

Minneapolis residents can sign up through the statewide Adopt-a-Drain program to claim a nearby storm drain and commit to clearing leaves, trash and debris from it, roughly fifteen minutes about twice a month. The work matters because the city's storm drains flow directly to local lakes, rivers and wetlands without treatment, so anything washed into a grate ends up in the water.

In the lakes neighborhoods, that connection is concrete. Leaves and grass clippings that go down a drain near Lake of the Isles feed algae in the lake; debris that clogs a grate during a downpour backs water up at the curb and can flood a street. Clearing the grate before a heavy rain or after a leaf-drop keeps both problems in check.

The program is the largest of its kind in the country, and Minneapolis participants have together cleared more than a million pounds of debris. Volunteers can weigh what they collect and report it back, which helps organizers measure the program's effect on water quality. Signing up is free at adopt-a-drain.org, where residents create an account and claim a specific drain by address.

[unverifiable: the original article profiled an unnamed Lowry Hill resident said to have cleared the same corner drains for years; with no named subject or source to confirm, that profile has been replaced with verified information about the program it described.]