Many Muskogee, Okla., junior high students are spending this summer trying to ensure clean water flows down their hometown's storm drains.

Seventh and eighth grade ecology club members are marking curbside storm drains with adhesive tags that read, "No dumping. Keep our water clean." The drain tagging project is part of the Muskogee County Cooperative Extension Service-sponsored Blue Thumb water pollution education program.

"There's a big misconception that the water that goes down the storm drain gets treated before it gets to the river," said Muskogee County 4-H urban educator David Adams. "But we want people to know that if they dump things into the storm drains, it goes straight to the Arkansas River."

Adams had Blue Thumb brochures printed to inform the public that storm water runoff does, in fact, flow to creeks, rivers and lakes. It names sediment, gasoline, fertilizer, pet waste, motor oil, litter and grass clippings among the most common water-polluting culprits. "The storm water may contain pollutants as complex as man-made chemicals or as simple as dirt," reads the brochure. "Pollutants directly impact fish and wildlife as well as drinking water for downstream communities."

Eighth grader and Blue Thumb volunteer Taylor Otterbine said he wants people to stop letting pollutants suc as oil enter the city's storm drains. "It leaks into the river, and oil is pollution," he said. "Take it [oil] back to the place you got it and recycle it."

Adams said his office ordered 800 adhesive plastic tags, which youth volunteers have fixed to drain covers across the city. The process takes about 15 minutes; the teens pick up trash around the drains, scrape and clean the concrete and attach the tags. Any particularly dirty storm drains are reported to the Muskogee Public Works department.

Source: Muskogee Phoenix