Adopting a drain in Tisbury

The new program aims to get the public involved in keeping Tisbury waters clean. 

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Jheyson Da Rocha at the stormwater drain he adopted as part of an Adopt-a-Drain program sponsored by Tisbury Waterways, Inc. —Sandy Cannon-Brown

There’s a new way for Tisbury residents to help keep bodies of water within the town clean.

Tisbury Waterways, Inc., announced the launch of the Adopt-a-Drain program, which allows volunteers to monitor and clean a drain, out of the 639 current drains in Tisbury.

The nonprofit organization is sponsoring the program through a grant from the Edey Foundation.

Drain adoption programs have popped up in various parts of the country, including multiple Massachusetts municipalities like Lexington, Somerville, and Seekonk. 

Tisbury Waterways president Melinda Loberg said the organization has an agreement with the town. While the Tisbury Department of Public Works maintains the drains in the town’s busier streets, the volunteers will be focused on their own neighborhoods. 

“Our DPW is chronically short-handed and they can’t possibly get out there and clean 639 drains all the time,” Loberg told The Times. “So we decided we would take on this project.” 

The drains typically get clogged with debris, which can cause unwanted pooling of water and make driving difficult. “If all that stuff gets swept up into the drains, some of those drains drain out into the ponds, and carry a lot of pollution from the roads,” Loberg said. 

Tisbury Waterways has a “long history” of testing water samples during rainstorms. The group has a special interest in monitoring drains that flow directly into a body of water. Loberg said a system the organization is particularly concerned about is 13 drains that eventually flow into Lake Tashmoo, through a marsh. 

“We tested that drain, and it is extremely high in fecal coliform during rainstorms, and we’ve tested it for metals,” she said. 

There is a first-flush basin in the area that filters out the first quarter-inch to half-inch of the “most polluted” water before it reaches the ground, Loberg said. 

When asked whether nitrogen — a nutrient that led Tisbury to implement new regulations regarding septic systems to improve water quality in Lake Tashmoo and Lagoon Pond — was also of concern, Loberg said the storm water runoff associated with drains in Tisbury actually carried more bacteria. 

The program can help residents become more invested in their town through the stewardship of storm drains. “It’s really a part of our mission to inform the public and recruit the public,” Loberg said. “This is really a great educational tool.” 

As a part of that effort, Tisbury Waterways members recently met with a Tisbury School class of seventh graders to introduce the program, and teach about the pollution that comes down from these drains. 

“We decided to start with the seventh grade class at the Tisbury School because we already work with them on a pollution education program in the spring,” Loberg said, adding that the teacher, Sue Adamo, wanted to add Adopt-a-Drain as a part of the science curriculum. “The kids were enthusiastic, and they adopted some drains, as a class, around the school.” 

The students were also invited to adopt drains around town, and to get their families involved. 

The first student to participate in the program was Tisbury School seventh grader Jheyson Da Rocha, who adopted a storm drain on Authiers Avenue. He named it “Da Rocha’s Dump.” 

The Tisbury Waterways website has a map showing the drains that have been adopted so far, one of which was adopted by Loberg.

“We do hope that other families and classes at the Tisbury School learn about it and sign up for a drain of their own,” Loberg said. 

For more information about Adopt-a-Drain, or to sign up for the program, visit bit.ly/47jLVTE.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Maybe if Tisbury was offering a starting pay more than $23 an hour, the DPW wouldn’t be so “chronically short handed”?

  2. I think this is a good idea to keep the water flowing
    and off the roads. But,I am not clear as to how cleaning
    these out results in less pollution. If someone has
    a car that leaks oil, and that oil gets washed into the
    drain during a rainstorm, how does a clear drain prevent
    that oil or fecal matter or whatever from getting into
    a pond or the groundwater ?

    • Don,
      Cleaning the drain keeps the oil out of the pond, the same way rejecting 30 million in state money made the Tisbury school cheaper. Or drilling a million dollars in wick wells in the school yard, that were never used made the water cleaner. Consider the source of the information, and run away.

  3. “Adopt a drain in Tisbury” ?
    I thought at first, with all of the successful lawsuits against the Tisbury Police Dept, the citizens were being encouraged to adopt a police officer, to keep the drain on public funds in check.
    I know who I would not pick.

  4. Road run off is far worse than leaf debris. After a rain the oil slick at Owen Little Way is awful.

      • I remember hearing about a sock like filter that can be put in storm drains in order to filter road run off before it reaches the waterways. They would take more maintenance, however, would be worth it. Who would know more about those?

  5. There are dozens of engineered drains around Town that were specifically engineered and need annual maintenance but have never been maintained. I understand that There are some along West Spring St that have already failed and are dumping unfiltered and untreated storm water potentially into Lake Tashmoo. The Town Managers over time and the local department involved have been ignoring this annual maintenance obligation for decades. Adopting a drain by a local individual or business might put that person on the hook for complete rebuilds. The Town should be taking care of the Towns infrastructure no matter how fiscally difficult that might be.

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