Student project tackles storm drain trash
When Dinmukhammed Adikhan, an incoming senior at Falls Church High School, noticed a lot of trash around the storm drains in his Westlawn neighborhood, he decided to do something about it.
Adikhan, who goes by Dimash, signed up with a storm drain-labeling program run by the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District (NVSWCD). The program recruits volunteers to place decals on storm drains with the message “no dumping, drains to Potomac River.” The decals have a picture of a shad, a fish that relies on local rivers for its spawning habitat.
Dimash’s decals will say “no dumping, drains to Tripps Run.” That stream drains into Lake Barcroft, the Cameron Run watershed, the Potomac River, and eventually, the Chesapeake Bay.
“I wanted to do something over the summer to help out the community,” Dimash says. “Storm drain labeling can help educate community residents about how we can contribute to getting good water quality in our streams, lakes, rivers, and the Chesapeake Bay.” He also plans to distribute an educational flyer to the community.
During the period July 15-31, Dimash and friends Andy Tran, Mohammed Elmi, and Taran Williamson plan to label all 90 or so storm drains in the neighborhood.
He has already gotten a green light from the NVSWCD, which provides all supplies, as well as Fairfax County and VDOT. He plans to reach out to the Westlawn Civic Association.
According to the NVSWCD, non-point source pollution, which comes from all homes and communities rather than a single source, is the leading cause of water quality deterioration in the Chesapeake Bay.
This is also a problem contributed to Fairfax County Waste Management. Many renters in single family homes will put their trash, particularly brush or furniture out at the curb and do not call FCWM for bulk pick up: one because they don’t know who to call and/or consider it the absentee landlords’ problem. As a result, there are large pieces of furniture on the curbs all over the county. Neither Code Compliance or Waste Management will take responsibility for resolving this problem or picking up this rogue trash and thus these pollutants are carried right down into our storm water polluting our streams.
The problem is prolific and remains a non-priority for the County that claims to be addressing climate change.
There are mattresses all over the south side of hwy 50 in the westlawn neighborhood. They have been there for months and have attracted more dumping. I hope the BoS is enjoying their raise.
This is just classic. Adults complain – young people do something about it. We don’t deserve our youth.
Speak for yourself. As an adult many of us have been doing a lot more than complaining, including raising children, volunteering for countless school activities, sports, scouts, etc, and within those activities maybe even doing some cleanup. The young man doing this work is exceptional and he has my gratitude. This isn’t at all ‘classic.’
I’m referring to the comments on this blog. Kudos to you.
I commend the youngsters for taking the initiative and acting upon it. Maybe they can teach their parents and the BoS to do a better job of taking care of the planet. Oh that may not work, they are too busy driving their oversized F150s.
Why doesn’t this article link to the actual program so that other groups/individuals who might be interested could easily see how it works and maybe get involved? There are lots of storm drains that could use the labels.
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/soil-water-conservation/storm-drain-education
What a wonderful boy! He seems care about community and environment! Big thank you to him and parents who raise him!