'No Dumping' storm drain markers highlight Earth Day
Students embed medallions near storm drains to protect Laguna Madre
Contact(s): Jaime Flores, 956-968-5581, jjflores@ag.tamu.edu
Javier Guerrero, 956-457-3023, JGuer0351@aol.com
Jaime Flores, coordinator for the institute’s Arroyo Colorado Watershed Partnership, said the signs are being installed by the institute, member cities of a stormwater task force, and volunteers throughout South Texas.
The medallion-shaped storm drain markers read, “No Dumping, Drains to Laguna Madre.” They are embedded into cement surrounding storm drain manhole covers.
“We hope the markers will remind citizens not to dump their waste or trash directly into a storm drain,” he said. “All water that flows into storm drains ends up in the Laguna Madre and if the water is polluted, it will pollute the Laguna.”
The partnership and the task force of municipal public works employees invite volunteers to join in effort, Flores said.
On Earth Day, April 22, the City of Alton and students at Alton Junior High School will install markers at 9:30 a.m. on the school campus at 521 S. Los Ebanos Blvd.
As a precursor to Earth Day, the City of Mission and volunteers installed storm drain markers and picked up trash on April 4 as part of its 2009 Mission Trash Bash.
On April 17, the City of Pharr public works and fire departments, along with elementary students, installed markers near schools. They also planted grass, flowers and trees.
Others who have installed markers recently include the City of San Benito and Girl Scout troops; the City of La Joya and La Joya High School science students; the City of Weslaco and volunteers; the City of San Juan and National Honor Society students at the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district; and the City of Harlingen and student volunteers.
More than 1,000 markers will be installed throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley during these events with 20,000 eventually installed, said Javier Guerrero, a doctoral student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and the task force liaison.
“The storm drain marking events are part of the Arroyo Colorado partnership’s ongoing efforts to restore and protect the watershed. The partnership and local cities have also installed road signs marking Arroyo Colorado crossings or the boundary of the Arroyo Colorado watershed,” he said.
These activities support the implementation of the Arroyo Colorado Watershed Protection Plan, which was released in 2007 and is designed by local stakeholders to restore and protect the Arroyo Colorado, Flores said.
The Arroyo Colorado, which runs 90 miles from Mission to the Lower Laguna Madre, is on the state’s list of impaired waters for high bacteria levels and low dissolved oxygen, according to Cecilia Wagner, who manages water quality projects in the Arroyo Colorado for the Texas Water Resources Institute.
One of the first plans released in Texas, its implementation is funded in part by a Clean Water Act 319(h) grant provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, she said.
The grant and the partnership are administered by the Texas Water Resources Institute, an organization of the Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas AgriLife Research and Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
The stormwater task force was organized in 2002 with efforts by Texas A&M University –Kingsville’s Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering to assist the cities in putting together a regional stormwater management plan and obtain storm system permits required by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency, Guerrero said.
For more information, visit the Arroyo Colorado Watershed Partnership Web site at http://arroyocolorado.org/ .
