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Officials at the Adopt-a-Stream kick-off included: (left to right): City stormwater engineer David Hagerman, Tom Salter of Keep Knoxville Beautiful, Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale (at lectern), Knoxville Vice Mayor Jack Sharp and Farragut Mayor Eddy Ford
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“We are drawn to water. We build our homes and our businesses near water. We even play in water,” said Tom Salter of Keep Knoxville Beautiful to kick-off the Adopt-a-Stream program. And because we build our cities near water, Knoxville, like most urban areas, has streams that are routinely trashed and need help.
The Adopt-a-Stream initiative will be a joint effort between the City of Knoxville, Knox County, the Town of Farragut, the Water Quality Forum and other concerned groups. The kick-off saw representatives of each group come together at Fountain City Park on June 13, 2003. In addition to Salter, Knoxville Vice Mayor Jack Sharp; Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale; Farragut Mayor Eddy Ford and city stormwater engineer David Hagerman all spoke to the group of supporters assembled for the occasion.
“Citizens keep asking us: what are you going to do?” said Farragut Mayor Eddy Ford. “We’ve got 21 miles of streams in Farragut. They’re important to us; important to our community,” Ford added. “We all must work together.”
For Adopt-a-Stream to work, dozens of groups will be needed to adopt sections of nearly 200 miles of county streams. Volunteers will be trained to assess their stream’s overall condition and will be asked to conduct at least two clean-ups a year. If applicable, volunteers will do “pipe and drainage ditch inventories.” Adopters also will be asked to report polluters to the appropriate agencies.
“The streams didn’t pollute themselves,” reported City of Knoxville stormwater engineer David Hagerman. “They won’t clean up themselves.” To this end, we all need to help.
Adopt-a-Stream Program Goals:
1. Increase citizen awareness of water quality issues
2. Train citizens on how to monitor stream health
3. Involve citizens in efforts to reduce the amount of trash in and along our waterways
To volunteer or for more information contact:
Knox County: Tracy Jones, Stormwater Engineering, (865) 215-5811
City of Knoxville: Jake Hudson, Stormwater Management, (865) 215-3145
Town of Farragut: Shari Cox, Town of Farragut Engineering, (865) 966-7057
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