Student Interns Increase Stormwater Awareness and Improve Private System Maintenance in Gresham
Start Date
February 2018
End Date
February 2018
Abstract
In 2016-17, The City of Gresham Water Resources Program launched an initiative to map, mark, and inspect all private stormdrains utilizing SummerWorks 15-19-year-old interns. Over two summers eleven interns were employed for about 2000 hours. Their $2,500/person stipend was funded by the Multnomah County Youth Connect program. The private drains are located on approximately 1200 tax lots that comprise churches, apartments, schools and businesses. The interns were trained on how to use GPS units to collect data on drain locations, apply “Dump No Waste” stickers in English and Spanish, and identify whether drains needed to be cleaned. Interns were provided with maps of tax lot priority locations, public transit passes and map routes, and rolling carts of supplies and equipment. Youth gained valuable project planning and public communication skills while also learning about local threats to water and salmon. The project resulted in about 3,400 drains being marked and mapped on about 1,000 tax lots. This effort has resulted in 400 additional drains required for maintenance by the city. Which is an estimated 30-70 additional cubic yards of debris and attached pollutants from entering the public stormwater system and local streams. Interns were also trained to identify evidence of spills, dumping, or poor best management practices at commercial properties. This resulted in five significant code violations such as: dumping of wash water & milk at local schools and unmaintained/leaking grease & garbage containers at restaurants and grocery stores.
Subjects
Environmental education, Water quality, Land/watershed management, GIS / modeling
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25649
Student Interns Increase Stormwater Awareness and Improve Private System Maintenance in Gresham
In 2016-17, The City of Gresham Water Resources Program launched an initiative to map, mark, and inspect all private stormdrains utilizing SummerWorks 15-19-year-old interns. Over two summers eleven interns were employed for about 2000 hours. Their $2,500/person stipend was funded by the Multnomah County Youth Connect program. The private drains are located on approximately 1200 tax lots that comprise churches, apartments, schools and businesses. The interns were trained on how to use GPS units to collect data on drain locations, apply “Dump No Waste” stickers in English and Spanish, and identify whether drains needed to be cleaned. Interns were provided with maps of tax lot priority locations, public transit passes and map routes, and rolling carts of supplies and equipment. Youth gained valuable project planning and public communication skills while also learning about local threats to water and salmon. The project resulted in about 3,400 drains being marked and mapped on about 1,000 tax lots. This effort has resulted in 400 additional drains required for maintenance by the city. Which is an estimated 30-70 additional cubic yards of debris and attached pollutants from entering the public stormwater system and local streams. Interns were also trained to identify evidence of spills, dumping, or poor best management practices at commercial properties. This resulted in five significant code violations such as: dumping of wash water & milk at local schools and unmaintained/leaking grease & garbage containers at restaurants and grocery stores.
