FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 October 13, 2006

VOLUNTEERS TO HELP CLEAN UP EWA BEACH

ON SATURDAY

            More than 50 volunteers from Campbell High School and many of their friends and neighbors will fan out across Ewa Beach to clean up trash and educate their neighbors about pollution on October 14, 2006, for national Make a Difference Day.

            The Ewa cleanup is also part of the City’s Adopt-A-Block program and is the second time in six months that the students and other groups are cleaning up Ewa Beach.

             The Campbell volunteers will have support from the Ewa Beach Boys and Girls Club, Honolulu Police Department, Ewa Weed and Seed, Ewa Lions Club, Ewa Beach Neighborhood Board, Navy active duty personnel, the office of City Councilman Todd Apo, the office of state Rep. Kymberly Pine, and Oahu District of the state Department of Transportation Highways Division.

            The City will provide volunteers with rakes, brooms, dust pans, trash bags, gloves, kits to stencil storm drains, educational materials. They will team up with a City refuse truck to tackle North Road and Fort Weaver Road adjacent to the Ewa Drainage Channel.    Some students will work with City personnel to hand out fact sheets on pet waste and simple practices to reduce polluted runoff at restaurant and food industry businesses, including proper disposal methods to control fats, oil and grease (or FOG).  Over time, FOG can accumulate and block a pipe, causing sewage backups and spills.

The Adopt-A-Block Program is coordinated by the Environmental Quality Division of the City Department of Environmental Services.  To volunteer, use the online request form at www.cleanwaterhonolulu.com or call 692-5656 (City Adopt-A-Block Program) or 831-6792 (State Adopt-A-Highway).  Visit these related websites:  www.opala.org and www.co.honolulu.hi.us/env/rc/index1.htm.  Stay tuned to KHUI (FM 99.5) for actions you can do around your home to keep pollutants out of our streams and ocean.

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CONTACT:

            Iwalani Sato, Department of Environmental Services, 429-4112