Cheyenne, Wyoming, awarded grant to help protect local streams from stormwater pollution

The Rotary Club of Cheyenne, Wyoming, recently received a $100,000 grant from the Microsoft Community Environmental Sustainability initiative to help restore and protect Crow Creek from the threat of stormwater pollution, reports the Associated Press.

With the grant, the Rotary Club will purchase at least 50 “Gutter Bins” from Casper, Wyoming-based Frog Creek Partners to catch garbage and debris before it enters stormwater drains.

According to the company, the Gutter Bin is installed on existing stormwater drains and captures everything from sediment to hydrocarbons before it hits the stormwater conveyance system. An adjustable funnel system directs polluted water into a “Mundus Bag” filter, which Frog Creek Partners says can be removed and discarded or recycled like a coffee filter.

The Gutter Bins will be placed in strategic locations around Cheyanne in 2021, and are expected to prevent thousands of pounds of trash from flowing into Crow Creek

“Crow Creek is a very impacted watershed,” said Brian Duerloo, founder of Frog Creek Partners. “This donation will capture at least 6,000 pounds of pollution per year from the city streets of Cheyenne. What we’re going to do is deploy this capital as wisely as possible – with the help of the city of Cheyenne, the Rotary Club of Cheyenne, the Laramie County Conservation District and Microsoft – putting these Gutter Bins in high-target areas to get as much trash as possible.”

For the Rotary Club, this effort fits perfectly into their mission that includes a focus on the environment and clean water, which President Brent Lathrop said are quality-of-life issues that impact living conditions.

“It’s all about Crow Creek. It’s all about citizens of the city being able to get down and enjoy the benefits of that river going through here,” Lathrop told the Associated Press.

Currently, the level to which Crow Creek can be enjoyed is limited. No fish inhabit the stream, and the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) classifies Crow Creek as impaired for sediment and E. coli, which is another issue the Crow Creek Revival movement hopes to address.

“A lot of people don’t realize that all of the filth on our city streets is washed to our local watersheds here in Wyoming each time it rains or the snow melts,” Duerloo said.

Ultimately, the goal of the Gutter Bin installation project is to lessen that impact, both locally and globally.