The City of Oak Ridge Healthy Waters Program is seeking organizations, businesses, and community groups to participate in a new Adopt-A-Creek program. The Adopt-A-Creek program serves to enhance the quality of Oak Ridge’s waterways through citizen action and education. It aims to reduce the amount of trash in and along waterways, to increase citizen awareness of water quality issues, and to train citizens on how to monitor stream health, a press release said.

Any organization, business, or group can volunteer to adopt a creek, or section of a creek, for a one-year period. During this period, participants will pick up and remove litter in and around the creek at least once every six months. Additionally, participants will be taught how to perform a visual stream assessment at each creek cleanup.

Safety and stream assessment training for each participating group’s coordinator and co-coordinator will be provided, and so will trash bags, gloves, safety vests, and warning signs for the groups to use during each cleanup event, the press release said. [Read more…]