The Clean Streams Initiative began as a program with the local environmental community to quantify litter pollution, clean up Fairfax streams, and generate creative and sustainable ways to reduce the amount of litter in Fairfax’s streams through outreach and education to the public. The Initiative has worked closely with:

  • Little Hunting Creek: The Community Preservation and Development Corporation, young people from the community, and residents from Creekside Village work with us to monitor and clean up the trash coming from local apartments, which are classified as a High Density Residential area.
  • Pohick Creek: The Mason Neck Lions and residents of Pohick Square Apartments monitor and clean up the trash from a set of apartments, which are classified as a Medium Density Residential area.
  • Quander Brook: Friends of Quander Brook count litter and clean it up behind the Kings Crossing Shopping Center, our Commercial site.
  • Little Rocky Run: Friends of Little Rocky Run collaborate with Clean Fairfax to monitor and clean up trash coming from single-family homes at this Low Density Residential site.
  • Holmes Run: Friends of Luria Park help monitor the trash from both single-family homes and a nearby school. The Soil and Water Conservation District and local school children keep it clean!

The Initiative has since evolved to capture even more descriptive data on litter in Fairfax County streams through its formal partnership with the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES). Specifically, the program works to fulfill a piece of the County’s MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System) five-year permit. This permit pertains to untreated water that is runoff into streams due to rainstorms, not from wastewater pipes or treatment plants (for more information about the MS4 permit in Fairfax County, visit Public Works site). Through this collaboration, the Clean Streams Initiative has generated robust database of litter collection, characterization, and change over time at five sites across the County for nearly a decade, supporting the educational, outreach, and advocacy work that Clean Fairfax does.

Read on about our collaboration with the DPWES below.

July, 2016

Clean Fairfax and DPWES collaboration

Clean Fairfax Council and the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services begin a partnership to monitor Fairfax County streams for “floatables” (pieces of litter) and distribute educational & outreach materials on the negative effects of litter in our County.

July, 2017

Clean Streams monitoring update

The Clean Streams Initiative spring monitoring and cleanup of streams in Fairfax County yielded a total of 1,403 pieces of litter from five 100-foot long stream segments. That averages to 2.8 pieces of trash every foot!

These totals are just from the few sites we monitor for the Clean Streams Initiative. Volunteers have picked up thousands of pieces of litter countywide, including numerous tires, shopping carts, appliances, etc.

July, 2020

FY2020 monitoring update

During fiscal year 2020, the Clean Streams monitoring program collected 964 pieces of litter in the five monitoring sites.

July, 2021

Clean Streams Initiative turns 5!

The collaboration with DPWES celebrates its fifth year of monitoring Fairfax County streams! Clean Fairfax continues to collect useful litter characterization data, and fulfill a piece of the MS4 (Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System) five-year permit, pertaining to stormwater runoff into streams.

July, 2022

FY2022 monitoring update

During fiscal year 2022, the Clean Streams monitoring program collected just 415 pieces of litter in the five monitoring sites. Food and Beverage items continue to be the most common items collected at stream site cleanups.

July, 2023

FY2023 monitoring update

In fiscal year 2023, the Clean Streams Initiative tallied and collected a total of 505 pieces of litter.