Adopt-A-Drain Program

You can help improve water quality in your community. Through the Adopt-A-Drain program, you’ll help stop pollutants from reaching our waterways by monitoring your storm drains to make sure they’re free from litter and debris, and storm drains are properly marked.

What is Adopt-A-Drain?

Pinellas County, in partnership with UF/IFAS Extension, is offering the Adopt-A-Drain program to help reduce the amount of pollutants reaching our waterways.

Learn more about the Adopt-A-Drain program.

What is a storm drain?

Storm drains receive water from a storm (also known as stormwater) and drain it away from the road to a nearby body of water. Stormwater is rainfall that doesn’t seep into the ground but runs off over yards, streets, parking lots and buildings. To prevent flooding, streets are often lined with storm drains to quickly move stormwater off the pavement. As the rainwater travels across these areas toward the drain, it can pick up a lot of sediment and pollutants, contributing to large amounts of polluted stormwater.

Once the water enters the storm drain, underground pipes carry the stormwater directly to a nearby water body. Anything entering a storm drain will travel through the pipe system and drain directly into a nearby water body with no advanced treatment. In Florida, the stormwater system is completely separate from the sewer system. The sewer and storm drain pipes do not connect. Sewage gets treated at a local wastewater treatment facility.