Keeping storm drains clear is important for two big reasons here in the low country:
1. Preventing street flooding: during a rain storm, storm drains are designed to quickly move water off the street. A clogged drain can cause water to pool and flood our streets.
2. Protecting water quality: Pollutants left on the ground, like bacteria-laden pet feces or plastics and Styrofoam in litter, are swept into storm drains with rain. These pollutants then end up passing through untreated to our local waterways, ultimately impacting our water quality.
Savannah residents can now play an active role in preventing street flooding and protecting our water quality by adopting a storm drain through a locally designed interactive website.
Savannah’s new adopt-a-drain program has been led and managed by OpenSavannah, the Savannah chapter, or “brigade”, of the national organization
Code for America. Through its brigades, Code for America seeks to improve the delivery of government services, by leveraging the skills of civic-minded residents in communities across the country.
OpenSavannah volunteers used data provided by the City of Savannah to build out a website which allows users to claim and care for storm drains in their neighborhood. As a storm drain adopter, your job is to make sure leaves, limbs, litter, and other debris is cleared away from the drain you’ve adopted. Even organic materials like grass clippings and leaves can degrade water quality. Pet waste, oils from our driveways, fertilizers, and street litter that wash into a drain pollute our waterways too.
To adopt your own storm drain, just visit DrainSav.org.
Report polluters
If you see anyone dumping pollutants into the street or storm drain, or if you spot someone blowing leaves and yard waste into a drain, please report this to the City of Savannah 311 Action Center. You can dial 3-1-1 locally to reach an operator, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or anytime via the online form at
www.savannahga.gov/311. Reports to 311 can be made anonymously.
Remember: nothing but rain down the drain!