The Sacramento Stormwater Quality Partnership (SSQP) is a multi-jurisdictional
program made up of Sacramento County and the incorporated cities of Sacramento,
Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, and Rancho Cordova, educating and
encouraging the community to protect local waterways from the impacts of urban
run-off, which flows untreated from storm drains to creeks, streams and rivers.
What is Stormwater?
Stormwater is rain that flows over land or impervious surfaces, such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, and does not soak into the ground. In urban areas less rain is able to infiltrate into the ground, thus creating urban runoff and picking up pollutants along the way. Stormwater carries pollutants such as trash, pet waste, and garden chemicals into nearby storm drains, which eventually flows into waterways untreated. This harms the quality of our waterways.
Water pollution primarily comes from residents and you
are the most important solution to stormwater pollution.
Learn how you can help prevent stormwater pollution
and improve our community.
Mercury is very toxic to people and wildlife, and some of its uses have resulted in widespread contamination of the environment. Let’s work together to protect and enhance the quality of life in our neighborhoods and throughout the community for our enjoyment now…and for our children’s enjoyment in the future.
Using less or non-toxic alternatives in your garden is important for a healthy garden, the beneficial bugs, our waterways, and our ecosystem. Let’s work together to protect and enhance the quality of life in our neighborhoods and throughout the community for our enjoyment now…and for our children’s enjoyment in the future.
When pet waste is improperly disposed of, it can be picked up by stormwater runoff and washed into storm drains then directly to the river without being treated. Let’s work together to protect and enhance the quality of life in our neighborhoods and throughout the community for our enjoyment now…and for our children’s enjoyment in the future.
Litter from sidewalks, streets, parking lots, and nature areas eventually find its way into our rivers. Let’s work together to protect and enhance the quality of life in our neighborhoods and throughout the community for our enjoyment now…and for our children’s enjoyment in the future.
Whether you’re a hardcore rider or just like to get out for a cruise, the American River Bike Fest has something for everyone.
This is not a timed ride, but rather an opportunity to get outside, give back and make some new connections and memories.
The morning will begin at William B. Pond Park with staggered start times starting at 6 a.m. Along the way, riders will be able to stop at different rest stops and enjoy snacks and services.
All riders will meet back at William B. Pond Park after their rides for a festival with food, libations, raffle, activities, live music from The Leaping Blennies, and more!
Location: Camp Pollock, 1501 Northgate Blvd., Sacramento, CA
We are continuing our work with Friends of Steelhead Creek stewards Roland Brady and Crystal Tobias to clean this area of the American River Parkway. We will be meeting at Camp Pollock and hiking or driving to our cleanup site along Steelhead Creek. These weekly Wednesday cleanups will focus within the parkway, below El Camino Blvd. We will be working on both the left and right bank and at times in the creek.
Parking is free at Camp Pollock and the cleanup sites are fairly close with mostly level terrain. These events will range from easy to difficult, with work for all levels, but is not suitable for children under 16. We will continue to work with Sacramento County Regional Parks to remove our piles.
Please come out and help with this project. We will provide bags, but please bring along your sturdy footware, grabbers, buckets, gloves, and hats – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available. Entry into the water is always optional.
As with all events shared on RCWA, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Overall, be safe, have fun, and get some “Exercise with a Purpose” as Bill Templin always says!
This will be a maintenance cleanup in the Northgate/Riverdale area of the parkway. These areas were all RCWA CLEAN this spring by volunteers helping stewards Deborah and Rick. We have completed 24 cleanup events removing over 120,000 pounds of trash. Please come out and help keep this area “sparkly clean”.
Parking is free at Camp Pollock and the cleanup sites are fairly close with mostly level terrain. These events will range from easy to difficult, with work for all levels, but is not suitable for children under 16. We will continue to work with Sacramento County Regional Parks to remove our piles.
Please come out and help with this project. We will provide bags, but please bring along your sturdy footware, grabbers, buckets, gloves, and hats – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available. Entry into the water is always optional.
As with all events shared on RCWA, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Overall, be safe, have fun, and get some “Exercise with a Purpose” as Bill Templin always says!
Thank you! River City Waterway Alliance “Restoring & Protecting Our Waterways”
For those who want to, we will again be driving right down and parking on the island. Parking will still be available in the big parking lot across Garden Hwy for those who don’t want to drive on the dirt road.
You can park at 2150 River Plaza Dr and walk across Garden Hwy toward Interstate 5 and follow the signs down the dirt road to the dirt parking lot. Don’t be late, you will not find us.
Sturdy shoes/boots and long sleeves and long pants are recommended because of thick bramble and poison oak. This will be a medium level event with a moderate walk.
RCWA will provide bags, but please bring along your grabbers, buckets, and gloves – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available.
As with all events shared on RCWA, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Overall, be safe, have fun and get some “Exercise with a Purpose” as Bill Templin says.
Thank you!
River City Waterway Alliance “Restoring & Protecting Our Waterways”
Join FOLFAN (Friends of Lakes Folsom and Natoma) as they host an early Great American River Clean Up (GARCU) event at Black Miners Bar State Park in Folsom (part of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area). • 8:00 to 8:30 am: Volunteers sign-in and get supplied • 8:30 am: Quick orientation and safety talk • 8:40 am: Cleanup starts! • 11:40 am: Turn in trash and return trash grabbers • 11:50 am: Group photo • 12:00 pm: Pizza lunch Space is limited, so register online soon to save your spot among the volunteers!
HOW TO GET THERE: Enter Black Miners Bar State Park in Folsom through the Greenback Lane park entrance – just west of Folsom Blvd. If you don’t have a state parks pass, bring a printed copy of this GARCU event flyer to use as your day pass. Head for the picnic area. Follow signs.
WHAT TO BRING: Sturdy/comfortable closed-toe shoes, hat, long pants, long-sleeves, gloves, sunscreen, and bug spray. Also bring water to stay hydrated. FOLFAN will provide snacks, water to refill your bottles, and cleanup tools and supplies.
Join your local Trashers on 9/16 for a channel and neighborhood cleanup wayyy out in the southeast part of Elk Grove. We hope to get to Grantline Road trail as well.
Best place to park is along Sedgefield Ave at Ted Kolb Way in the Fieldstone neighborhood.
We will hit all the area along the channel, the open space south of Derr Okamoto Park and nearby streets.
Bonus! Right there at D-O park, our Elk Grove PD will be hosting a neighborhood BBQ in the beat from 11-2. Let’s go! We joined twice last year and helped untrash the parks.
New to cleanups? Please arrive early to get signed in and get gear. If you have supplies, please bring your own gloves, buckets, bags, but we have items for you. Buckets, gloves, grabbers, vests, bags.
Please wear appropriate clothing, boots or closed-toe shoes, sunscreen, hats, and bring your own water.
All cleanups are done at your own risk, but safety first! Our trash safety talk starts promptly at 9:00 am.
Location: 4700 College Oak Dr, Sacramento, CA 95841
We are SO close to completing this stretch and connecting some incredible dots. We will park at the SOUTHWEST corner of the ARC stadium lot and retreat downstream where we ended on Sunday. We will then work upstream (hopefully all the way to College Oak Drive and beyond)! We are continuing our march toward Arcade Creek Park (where the amazing Alison Dusdale-Shepherd has hosted cleanups for almost 2 years now). We are all so super excited!
We will start PROMPTLY at 9:00 am so please arrive a few mins early to get settled and unpacked. After our safety chat, we will continue to clean the dry creek channel and along the top of the banks, making our way upstream towards our next major destination – College Oak Drive and hopefully beyond.
RCWA is so happy to continue partnering with Arcade Creek Adopt-A-Creek Project to continue cleaning Arcade Creek. Please bring water and only do what you are comfortable doing. The creek is fairly dry making trash and debris easily accessible and visible. Rain boots or sturdy shoes are nice to protect from sand and fox tails and long shirt/pants are ideal to protect from the sun and any scratches & scrapes.
This event will range in difficulty from easy to difficult, with some pretty easy pickins’ around the flat grassy upper banks.
RCWA will provide bags, but please bring along your sturdy footwear, grabbers, buckets and gloves – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available. Recommended (but not required) boots or rain boots.
As with all events shared by RCWA, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Overall, be safe, have fun and get some “Exercise with a Purpose” as Bill Templin always says!
Location: 201 W El Camino Ave, Sacramento, CA 95833
We are excited to again join Friends of Steelhead Creek (Dr. Roland Brady and Crystal Tobias) to resume cleaning this super trashed section of their adopted spot.
We will meet at the levee gate on the WEST side of Steelhead Creek (same as our last few cleanups of this area). PLEASE be on time (early ok) since we have to lock the gate behind us. At 9:00 a.m. SHARP, we will caravan onto the levee and proceed to the cleanup site. Late comers will not be accommodated. Folks that might need to leave early are welcome.
We’ll park along the levee road, so will be in sight of our vehicles the entire time. The work site is on the west bank of Steelhead Creek near the “Peninsula” where volunteers have removed over 68,000 lbs of trash during the last 5 cleanups at this location.
The event will range in difficulty from easy to very advanced and is not be suitable for children under the age of 16. There will be plenty of hard-core badgering (digging out the big stuff), but also lots of easy detail work along the flat floodplain above the creek.
We will provide bags, but please bring along your sturdy footwear, grabbers, buckets, and gloves – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available. As there is water in the creek, participants will be required to wear rain boots or waders if they intend to get into the water. Entry into any waters is always optional.
As with all events shared on our Page, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Overall, be safe, have fun and get some “Exercise with a Purpose”!, as Bill Templin says. Thank you!
This series of cleanups are organized by RCWA, Dr. Roland Brady, Crystal Tobias, Rich Muhl from the Water Quality Control Board, and Tony Decastillo and Gabe Holleman of RD 1000. Thank you all!
Thank you!
River City Waterway Alliance “Restoring & Protecting Our Waterways”
Thank you for joining us for the 39th California Coastal Cleanup Day, the state’s largest annual volunteer event! It’s a chance for everyone in our state, no matter where they live, to help clean up trash from our environment before the rains come and wash it out to the coast and ocean. Participating is easy! Please click the link below to the map for the cleanup site you want to join.
All the information you need is located within each pin on the map.
Join us as we celebrate California Coastal Cleanup Day in collaboration with EGAT, River City Waterway Alliance (RCWA) and Regional Sanitation District to clean up the Bufferlands. Saturday’s event continues our efforts to address the trash and debris buildup at Regional Sanitation’s Bufferlands ecosystem.
Have you heard of this beautiful ecosystem? Fed by several creeks, the Bufferlands can also become a graveyard for trash and debris washed down from upstream storm water systems and encampments.
This event is our 3rd in a series of cleanups, and our goal is to remove as much trash from the Bufferlands and promote efforts to prevent trash from entering the ecosystem in the future.
Please arrive *prior* to 9:00 am. The best place to meet will be front of RC Willey at the Delta Shores Shopping Center parking lot. There is plenty of space to park in case people arrive early. From there, we will either caravan or carpool further into the site. Latecomers will not be accommodated as gates will be locked after we enter.
If anybody needs to leave early, that will be fine, as we have a way to depart through the gates.
Volunteers who have yet to participate with RCWA will need to arrive early to sign waivers, and everyone will need to sign the event sheet.
Please bring your own canteen into the cleanup location. Water and Porta Potty will be available on site.
The event will range in difficulty from easy to very advanced and is not be suitable for children under the age of 16. There will be plenty of hard-core badgering (digging out the big stuff), but also lots of easy detail work along the flat floodplain and levee next to the creek.
We will provide bags, but please bring along your sturdy footwear, grabbers, buckets, and gloves – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available. As there is water in the creek, participants will be required to wear rain boots or waders if they intend to get into the water. Entry into any waters is always optional.
As with all events shared on our Page, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Stay tuned for updates to this event as we sort out finer details, thank you!
Opportunities for individuals and groups of all ages and sizes. Come join us and hundreds of other volunteers in the largest American River Parkway Clean-Up of the year.
Thank you for joining us for the 39th California Coastal Cleanup Day, the state’s largest annual volunteer event! It’s a chance for everyone in our state, no matter where they live, to help clean up trash from our environment before the rains come and wash it out to the coast and ocean. Participating is easy! Please click the link below to the map for the cleanup site you want to join.
All the information you need is located within each pin on the map.
Join us as we celebrate California Coastal Cleanup Day in collaboration with EGAT, River City Waterway Alliance (RCWA) and Regional Sanitation District to clean up the Bufferlands. Saturday’s event continues our efforts to address the trash and debris buildup at Regional Sanitation’s Bufferlands ecosystem.
Have you heard of this beautiful ecosystem? Fed by several creeks, the Bufferlands can also become a graveyard for trash and debris washed down from upstream storm water systems and encampments.
This event is our 3rd in a series of cleanups, and our goal is to remove as much trash from the Bufferlands and promote efforts to prevent trash from entering the ecosystem in the future.
Please arrive *prior* to 9:00 am. The best place to meet will be front of RC Willey at the Delta Shores Shopping Center parking lot. There is plenty of space to park in case people arrive early. From there, we will either caravan or carpool further into the site. Latecomers will not be accommodated as gates will be locked after we enter.
If anybody needs to leave early, that will be fine, as we have a way to depart through the gates.
Volunteers who have yet to participate with RCWA will need to arrive early to sign waivers, and everyone will need to sign the event sheet.
Please bring your own canteen into the cleanup location. Water and Porta Potty will be available on site.
The event will range in difficulty from easy to very advanced and is not be suitable for children under the age of 16. There will be plenty of hard-core badgering (digging out the big stuff), but also lots of easy detail work along the flat floodplain and levee next to the creek.
We will provide bags, but please bring along your sturdy footwear, grabbers, buckets, and gloves – a limited number of loaner buckets and grabbers may be available. As there is water in the creek, participants will be required to wear rain boots or waders if they intend to get into the water. Entry into any waters is always optional.
As with all events shared on our Page, participation is performed solely at your own risk. Please place safety FIRST and do only what you feel comfortable doing. Moreover, participants will be required to sign a Release and Waiver form if they have not done so previously.
Stay tuned for updates to this event as we sort out finer details, thank you!
Opportunities for individuals and groups of all ages and sizes. Come join us and hundreds of other volunteers in the largest American River Parkway Clean-Up of the year.
Location: Kadema Drive River Access, Sacramento, CA 95864
**All ages welcome at this site**
Join us for Trail Maintenance in the Parkway! We’ll be trimming low hanging limbs, removing fallen branches, weed whacking tall grass, and raking the equestrian/hiking trail. We will start at Kadema Dr River Access.
Please arrive before 8:30am to sign in and receive a safety briefing. Volunteers will head out to clean by 8:45am.
Volunteers 17 and under must bring a Youth Waiver signed by a parent or legal guardian. Volunteers 15 and under must also be accompanied at all times by a parent or legal guardian. Volunteers 18 and over must bring a completed and signed 2023 Waiver.
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Pet waste is a significant, yet preventable, water pollutant. Please clean up after your pet!
Not all bugs are bad! Learn how
good bugs can defend your home
against pests
Landscape and Nursery Expo
Businesses from all around participate in this annual event.
Residents can learn various landscape techniques as well
as purchase supplies, equipment, and attend educational
seminars.
Tuesday, May 3
For More Information
Contact the Sacramento Stormwater Quality Partnership at
ssqpinfo@cityofsacramento.org