One of the (only) good things about the economic downturn is that government agencies at all levels have to get creative about how they provide services.  The City of Seattle is asking residents to adopt storm drains to help with the huge chore of removing leaves and debris that clog the drainage system especially during the rainy season.  The new program, akin to the popular Adopt a Street program, provides volunteers with a storm drain kit.

Longer term, the city is working on innovative stormwater drainage solutions that avoids additions to the costly infrastructure of 80,000 storm drains, 40,000 catch basins, and 460 miles of storm drain pipes that is the current system in Seattle.  A systematic program of planting trees and building natural run-off systems would save the city millions and help prevent the sewage overflows that are routine when there are excessive rains or when there are technical or human errors, such as when 900 million gallons of stormwater and untreated sewage poured into Puget Sound from the West Point Treatment Plant in Magnolia recently.

H/T to Lisa Stiffler at Sightline