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An empty pack of cigarettes and a plastic coffee cup cover caught by a catch basin screen cover | Zach Behrens/LAist
Speaking of LA County's terrible water quality ranking that was announced today, have you seen these along Los Angeles' curbs? These catch basin screen covers prevent litter larger than ¾ of an inch from entering the storm drain system that brings water to the ocean via the LA River and Ballona Creek. Over the past year, they started appearing in the Valley, but they were first installed in other areas that generated the highest amount of trash.
What were those areas? A 2002 study found that a small part of the City generated the majority of the litter. Ouch. Those areas included the Civic Center area and the neighborhoods of South Los Angeles, Koreatown, Chinatown, East Los Angeles, portions of Hollywood and Silver Lake.
14,600 have already been installed in the first two phases, which concentrated on the highest and medium trash generation areas, according to the city. Now, in Phase III, 34,000 more catch basin screen coves will be installed throughout city limits, including on those maintained by the county and state.
The program is funded by Prop O, which was passed by voters in 2004. More than $25 million was spent on the first two phase with the third one projected to cost $44.5 million.
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I bet this does much more than street sweeping in terms of preventing pollution. Which brings up the question who removes trash from these screens since the sweepers can't pick up larger chunks?
According to a document the city gave me, "Opening cover remains in locked position during dry weather, allowing street sweepers to collect accumulated litter along the curb."
That didn't answer you question, but I think we'd have to follow street sweepers around to see what's there before and after they hit a street. Photo assignment for poloroidgirl?
Sweeping in my hood is today/tomorrow. I'll see what I can find & I'll take some pix. Honestly, not sure if we have those grates here...
Downtown L.A. has BID workers who do this.
These are a great idea, but as polaroidgirl and Zach mention, the street sweepers don't actually tend to pick up the trash from the grates as items typically get stuck in the grates and will not come out or there will simply be too much trash in one spot for a quick sweep to pick up.
Here is a picture of what some of these storm drains can look like (this one is on Sunset in front of Intelligensia)
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_klxcHyihoDE/SWrCe9UYfdI/AAAAAAAAACE/t0FidkE9ziw/s1600-h/IMG_2355.JPG
sorry for the long link, it is a photo from the LA Neighborhood Cleanup Project blog.
actually, not sure if that drain had the screen when that photo was taken, but still demonstrates the difficulty of street sweepers to pick up the accumulated trash.
If I'm not mistaken, the County usually has a contract to clean the catch basins out every year, before the rainy season. I think that's supposed to take care of the trash the street sweepers don't pick up.
Another thing that would help water quality is beating up the douchebags that toss their cigarettes (or cig packs) in the street, treating the world as their own personal ash-tray.
Although a slap is sometimes sufficient, a good bludgeoning is really the best way to get the point across, and is entirely deserved.
Gavin Newsome jut proposed a tax on cigarettes sold in San Francisco to defray the cost of litter removal, a full 1/4th of which is smoker-related.
If Gav will do that statewide, he may have just won my vote.
They work somewhat. Over on Victory and Platt in West Hills (SFV), there was a flooded corner at the intersection, causing a lane closure, which expanded to two lanes, and then an accident. A street sweeper came out and revealed that it was flodded because leaves and other trash were clogging the screen covers. I think I'd rather the debris flow out to filter underground or in an aqueduct rather than cause accidents on a major intersection.
If those were the only two options, sure. Unfortunately, a lot of what goes into the unguarded gutters doesn't somehow get magically 'filtered underground' and rarely in an aqueduct. I mean, no one wants a major intersection to be flooded and dangerous, but the problem lies with response and responsibility to gutters like these, before things get that bad at all.
Two ways we can all help: 1. Don't litter/sweep debris into the street. 2. Periodically, clean the grate where you are. If you're a business, one employee for 10 minutes twice a week. If you are a resident on the street, once a week is probably enough, if a couple of people take it on, it's hardly any work at all. Least economical and effective way to deal with it is to call for a City crew to be sent out.
I agree with Margartiasgirl. We really do need to take some personal responsibility on cleaning up trash on our own. There are some city employees that help, but even they can't pick up everything. If each person just cleaned up an equal number of pieces of trash to what they might have accidentally or intentionally let fly away, we would (theoretically) have a clean city! Of course there is a lot of dirt that comes from things like car tires wearing down and other things, but we should be able to handle the trash.
If possible, I would suggest that everyone take a trip down to the LA River and actually observe where the remainder of this trash flows. Even once it goes down the gutter, the trash sometimes collects and blocks things in other places along the way.
The best solution is to not let the trash get away in the first place. The next step would be to take personal responsibility before things become huge issues to the point of flooding intersections. If you see someone drop something, don't hesitate to pick it up (even if it looks like trash) and say "I think you dropped something!" We live in a city, with lots of people and doing something that is careless has effects on many people outside of yourself. It's a good thing to keep in mind.
M or margaritasgirl, if you ever want to help out on neighborhood clean ups, the LA Neighborhood Clean Up Project holds them all the time around LA and is always looking for volunteers. Join up!
Some how my cut and paste is disabled or I'd give a link.
Do a google for SMURRF or Santa Monica Urban Runoff Reclaimation Facility. This amazing facility takes the storm drain water, cleans it up, and pumps the gray water back into Santa Monica to be used for watering the city owned properties.
You can visit the facility next time you're in Santa Monica, it's right by the pier.
All coastal cities should have these things.