Do you notice every time you drive underneath a bridge or underpass it’s dark and full of debris and litter? The cleaning of underpasses plays a huge part in keeping our environment safe and clean. This summer, the Underpass Team is working to protect Cleveland’s underpasses by picking up under and around bridges. This team has also adopted the goal of cleaning the streets and underpasses around the City of Cleveland and informing people on how they can help keep our streets and community clean.

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The Underpass Team is a group of youth, usually four youth per team, who work together to clean up debris in underpasses and under bridges. This year’s teams consisted of 10 youth who worked four hours a day. Two youth that we interviewed this summer were Sedrick Duncan and Alysia Barnett. Sedrick is 14 years old, currently home schooled and is an upcoming 10th grader. He joined the program because he wanted to help his community. 

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This is not Sedrick’s first job, but he has learned a lot from working with the Summer Youth Employment Program this summer. He says, “Having this job has taught me about responsibility and teamwork”. Sedrick described his overall experience as amazing and he enjoyed learning new things. “Our job consist[ed] of cleaning under bridges and picking up debris around storm drains and streets.”

Another member of the Underpass Team is Alysia Barnett, a senior at John Adams High School. Alysia heard about the program through school and thought it would be a great way to spend her summer. She described her job as, “Working to clean litter from underpasses so it won’t cause any flash floods and it makes it easier to clean the water.” Alysia has learned many things while working with the program but three of the major lessons she has learned are teamwork, responsibility and communication. Alysia knows that what she does and every little thing we all do, impacts the city in someway. The main contributor to the messy underpasses is litter. Littering can not only make our streets and neighborhoods

look unappealing but it can harm the environment in many other ways. A small piece of litter you have in your hand today could amount to billions of tons of litter at the end of the year. An enormous amount of money is spent each year just to clean up the litter that many people have thoughtlessly tossed out on the streets and other public spaces such as underpasses and storm drains according to Conserve Energy Future. When litter is thrown out onto our streets it eventually ends up in our storm drains and that affects our water quality.

Underpasses all around the city suffer from litter and debris build up over storm drains, which can cause huge problems with flooding. This flooding can even lead to loss of life if the problem isn’t addressed. Densely populated areas are at a high risk for flash floods. Floods can happen during heavy rain. Under these kinds of conditions, the storm drains can become overwhelmed and lead to flooding of roads and buildings. Low spots, such as underpasses, underground parking garages, and basements can become death traps. 

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According to the National Severe Storms Laboratory, floods kill more people each year in the United States than tornadoes, hurricanes or lightning. The work that the Underpass Team performs is very helpful in reducing the impact of litter on storm drains so that water can drain properly.

The work that the Underpass Team has done this summer has been very beneficial for the city. It has improved the looks and safety of underpasses, and has paved a way for mostly storm rain to go down the storm drain. However, their work can only make a difference if everyone makes an effort to curb the littering that goes on. This is a call to stop before you throw down those empty food wrappers and look around for a trash can. You can also pick up litter if you see it or speak out if you see someone else doing it. We only have one city, so let’s take pride and keep it clean.