A sunny, dry afternoon provided the perfect time to do a little something different from the day-to-day routine for Sightlines LLC in Jenkintown, PA this Thursday. Ten employees from their Jenkintown building helped to mark an estimated 50 storm drains in the borough from Mather Road north up to West Avenue and east to Old York Road/611. This TTF effort is in partnership with the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary (PDE) storm drain marking program, which works to place medallions with a fish saying “No Dumping! Drains to Creek” on storm drains across the Delaware Estuary.
Many people don’t realize that storm drains on the street lead to our local waterways. Food packaging, plastic bags and cigarette butts thrown onto the sidewalk or street ultimately make their way through the storm drain system and into our creeks and rivers. During rain, the polluted water from our streets floods our waterways.
We hope these new markers help to keep this situation from happening!
The two groups were led by TTF’s Community Liaison Steph Clymer and Tree Campaign Organizer Abby Grosslein. In addition to marking storm drains, our enthusiastic volunteers also talked with passersby about how using the storm drains properly can help keep our water clean. We distributed flyers and informed the community about TTF and how they can get involved with our activities.
Ashley Schmid, TTF’s Director of Education and Outreach, introduced TTF and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary before we got started.
Volunteers removed two bags full of trash and one of recyclables from the streets, keeping them out of the newly-marked storm drains.
All of the Sightlines volunteers pose with a newly-marked storm drain.
Thank you to Sightlines for being such awesome volunteers! Thank you to Jenkintown Borough for sending these great volunteers to TTF! Click here for more photos!
We still have more storm drains to mark in Jenkintown and across the watershed! To get involved with future events like this, contact us.
