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Employees from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) participated in three Waterway Clean Sweep volunteer events in 2021. More than 40 ODEQ volunteers collected over 3,000 pounds of trash from our OKC waterways.
“We appreciate ODEQ’s partnership with OKC. The agency volunteer support has significantly contributed to the success of the Waterway Clean Sweep Program for our community. We look forward to the future growth of the program and to building the community partnerships for continued program success,” Stormwater Superintendent Derek Johnson said.
Storm Water Quality has three different volunteer programs to provide opportunities for organizations and individuals to play a role in keeping their community and drinking water litter free. The City provides all materials needed to participate.
Adopt-a-City Street is a litter clean-up program that allows groups to adopt sections of roadway and hold clean-up events at their adopted street segment for a minimum 2-year period.
Curbs to Creeks is a storm drain marking program where volunteers are trained to mark storm drain inlets. These markers have messages such as “Dump No Waste” and “Drains to River” to inform residents that storm drains connect directly to a local waterway. Any materials dumped into a storm drain will ultimately be released into our local waterways, untreated.
Waterway Clean Sweep is a popular litter clean-up program for our waterways. Volunteers spend just a few hours at an event helping clean OKC waterways.
- Every year hundreds of thousands of pounds of litter enter local waterways. The volunteer program provides opportunities for volunteers to remove litter and debris from our drinking water.
- Groups can select their own Waterway Clean Sweep event date by contacting Brooke Vierck.
To sign up, find out more about volunteer opportunities or to schedule a volunteer event contact Brooke Vierck at brooke.vierck@okc.gov or call 405-297-1797.
The next Waterway Clean Sweep volunteer event will be held on Sunday, November 14th from 1 - 3 p.m. in southeast Oklahoma City at Kitchen Lake Park. Waterway Clean Sweep volunteers clean up trash from our local waterways to help keep our water clean. For more information or to sign up, contact Brooke Vierck at brooke.vierck@okc.gov or call (405) 297-1797.
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Monica Walls was hired in May 2021 as the team leader for the Construction Permitting and Inspection Section. Prior to joining the City, she worked in the Environmental Health and Safety field for 27 years. Some of the different industries she provided expertise to included agriculture, mining, oil & gas, manufacturing and government.
“I love Oklahoma and working with people. This position allows me to stay in Oklahoma and help protect our environment while promoting development,” Monica said.
Monica has several projects planned to improve land disturbing permit communications, one of them includes developing educational resources to help guide construction permittees with their projects, such as fact sheets and flowcharts.
During her free time Monica enjoys attending sporting events, spending time with family and friends, as well as working outside in the yard.
Advice to New Hires:
“Everyone here is so helpful. If you have a question, ask. If they don’t know the answer, you will be directed to someone that will.”
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The Storm Water High 5 Award was created to recognize permit compliance excellence in Storm Water Quality programs. Inspectors recognize excellence in one or more of the following permit compliance categories by nominating a permittee to receive a high five award.
• Overall storm water program
• Best management practices
• Employee training
• Spill prevention and secondary containment
• Visual monitoring
• Sample documentation
• SWPPP documentation
• Spill response
1127 Meadowbrook Acres, LLC. was recognized for proactively updating their Storm Water Pollution Prevention and Erosion Control Plans during project implementation.
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