Cleaner Streams Program: We need your help to protect our lakes and streams!
The City of Lincoln Watershed Management Division and Keep Lincoln-Lancaster County Beautiful (KLLCB) are working to help keep our streams, lakes, and creeks beautiful. You can be a part of the effort too by volunteering to conduct a Stream Clean-up or a Water Quality Monitoring event, Adopt-a-Stream, or be part of the Stormwater Street Team.
Why Get Involved?
Everyone in the community can take an active role in assuring the well being of the Lincoln community and its water resources. Water pollution affects every one of us. By getting involved as a volunteer, community members can help reduce surface water pollution, improve the riparian and aquatic habitats, improve stream aesthetics, provide for a more sustainable stream, and learn more about our local ecosystems.
Who Can Participate?
This volunteer program is designed for volunteer groups, scouting groups, youth organizations, neighborhood associations, churches, and anyone who is concerned about the condition of the city's waterways and willing to commit time and energy for storm drain marking or organizing a stream clean-up. Volunteers must be at least 19 years of age or volunteering with a supervising adult.
- Stream Clean-up
Volunteer to collect litter from a local stream to keep waterways healthy and beautiful.
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Cleaning up your local stream establishes a connection between citizens and the stream that runs through there community. Therefore, community members are able to see, first hand, the impacts of their cleanup efforts on the overall condition of the stream's habitat and water quality.
- Time commitment:
- You can volunteer for as little or as much time as fits into your schedule. An average time spent on a cleanup is typically three hours. One time volunteer opportunities are great, but you can also commit to a section of stream for up to two years.
- What you need:
- Trash bags, gloves, informational documents, and record sheets are available by contacting the Stream Clean-up Coordinator.
- When:
- Volunteers may perform stream cleanup duties at any time, but must notify the coordinator regarding when a stream cleanup is planned.
- Contact the Stream Clean-up Coordinator prior to volunteering to fill out registration materials, identify a clean up location, and obtain clean up materials.
- To volunteer for a stream clean-up, contact:
- Emma Trewhitt
- Adopt-a-Stream Volunteer Coordinator
- City of Lincoln, Public Works and Utilities
- Watershed Management Division
- Lincoln, NE 68508
- 402-441-7075
- etrewhitt@lincoln.ne.gov
- Water Quality Monitoring
Volunteer to collect water samples from a local stream to keep waterways healthy and beautiful.
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Volunteer water quality monitoring helps provide a knowledge base for citizens who are interested in improving water quality. Monitoring will help determine the condition of the City of Lincoln's waterways by expanding our water quality monitoring network and help facilitate awareness of water quality issues.
Time commitment: You can volunteer for as little or as much time as fits into your schedule. An average time spent on monitoring is typically three hours. One time volunteer opportunities are great, but you can also commit to a section of stream for up to two years.
What you need: We'll provide sample collection jar, temperature strips, pH tube and tablets, dissolved oxygen vial and tablets, color chart to read results, secchi disk, pencil and pad to record results.
When: Volunteers may stream monitor at any time but must notify the coordinator regarding when monitoring is planned.
- To volunteer for water quality monitoring, contact:
- Emma Trewhitt
- Adopt-a-Stream Volunteer Coordinator
- City of Lincoln, Public Works and Utilities
- Watershed Management Division
- Lincoln, NE 68508
- 402-441-7075
- etrewhitt@lincoln.ne.gov
- Adopt-a-Stream
Volunteer a group to maintain a section of stream.
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Adopting a stream ensures ownership on the health and beautify of a small stream section in Lincoln.
Time commitment: Your group will be responsible for a stream section for at least one year and perform two stream clean-ups and/or water quality monitoring events.
- To volunteer for a stream clean-up, contact:
- Emma Trewhitt
- Adopt-a-Stream Volunteer Coordinator
- City of Lincoln, Public Works and Utilities
- Watershed Management Division
- Lincoln, NE 68508
- 402-441-7075
- etrewhitt@lincoln.ne.gov
- Stormwater Street Team
The goal of the Stormwater Awareness Program is to mark all 15,000 city storm drains with the "No Dumping - Drains to Creek" message
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Would you ever pour chemicals directly into a stream or drinking supply? It is hard to believe, but people actually dump chemicals down the storm drain inlets that collect the runoff and flow directly into our local creeks, streams, and lakes.
To best protect our watersheds, the public needs to become more aware of the connection between our storm drains and watersheds. Storm drain markers remind people that only rain should go into the drain.
The Stormwater Street Team program is a proactive and positive way for volunteers to serve their community and improve the quality of the environment. Families, clubs, organizations or individuals are welcome to volunteer.
Please contact the Storm Drain Marking Coordinator to volunteer and for more information.
- To volunteer for Stormwater Street Team, contact:
- Keep Lincoln Lancaster County Beautiful (KLLCB)
- 3140 N. Street
- Lincoln, NE 68508
- 402-441-8645
- gerickson@lincoln.ne.gov
Interested in getting involved? (66 K) 
- 5 things that you can do to have Cleaner Streams:
- 1. Use no/low phosphorous fertilizer.
- 2. Apply fertilizer and pesticide sparingly.
- 3. Properly dispose of pet waste.
- 4. Fix your vehicles fluid leaks.
- 5. Use a mulching mower.
For more information on pollutants in our streams see: Local Water Quality
