Residents feed needy families and clear storm drains

Hillsboro, OR — December 13, 2006 — It's the season of giving and more than 1200 Washington County residents opened their hearts to needy families around the region by donating food while disposing of their leaves at the 14th Annual Leaf Drop Off and Food Drive sponsored by Clean Water Services and the Oregon Food Bank. At Sunset and Aloha High Schools on November 18 and December 9, residents cleared a record-breaking 126 truck loads of leaves from neighborhood streets and donated 2,932 pounds of food to the Oregon Food Bank.

The leaf disposal program helps to control localized flooding caused by leaf-clogged storm drains. The program is funded by Clean Water Services’ $4.00 per month Surface Water Management (SWM) fee. The SWM fee pays for flood management and water quality protection and improvement programs including street sweeping, 24-hour emergency flood response, catch basin cleaning, water quality monitoring, watershed planning and public education.

Clean Water Services is the sanitary sewer and surface water management utility for nearly 500,000 customers in urban Washington County and small portions of Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Lake Oswego, and Portland. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment plants, constructs and maintains flood management and water quality projects and manages flow in the Tualatin River to improve water quality and protect fish habitat. Although Clean Water Services maintains a close working relationship with Washington County government, it is a separately managed and financed public utility.

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