The ‘Grate’ Drain Race
In the race to adopt the most drains, which watershed will win?
For the first time in watershed district history, two watershed districts are going head-to-head in the Grate Drain Race!
Starting August 1st through November 30th, 2026 the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District and the neighboring watershed, Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District are competing to see which community can adopt and clean the most storm drains and make the biggest impact.
Whether you’re adopting your first drain or have already adopted several, every cleaning helps protect our lakes, streams, wetlands, and rivers by keeping leaves, grass clippings, litter, and other debris out of the storm sewer system. A clean drain also helps prevent local streets from flooding.
We’re teaming up with Adopt-a-Drain, a volunteer program where community members can adopt a storm drain and help protect local lakes and streams by cleaning it twice each month. We’ll track adoptions and cleanups through the Adopt-a-Drain website: https://mn.adopt-a-drain.org/
Prizes! Clean Water! Glory!
There will be a total of 20 prizes raffled off and two individual prizes. Here is the breakdown of each:
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- Best drain name (1 winner)
- 100th drain adoption (1 winner)
- Most cleanings (3 winners by raffle, more cleanings = more chances to win)
- Most adoptions (3 winners by raffle, more adoptions = more chances to win)
- Winning watershed raffle (5 winners from winning watershed)
