Santa Clarita Valley residents can help keep pollutants from entering the storm drain system and help clean a portion of the Santa Clara River during the 2017 River Rally on Saturday, September 23 from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Rally participants will gather behind the shopping center at 18386 Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country. Get all the details and pre-register now at GreenSantaClarita.com.

In the SCV, what some people refer to as “the wash” is actually a network of tributaries to one of the last remaining natural rivers in Southern California, our own Santa Clara River. Bouquet Creek, Castaic Creek, Placerita Creek and San Francisquito Creek all flow to our river.

You will notice the riverbed surface remains dry most of the year, but water is actually flowing below ground from east to west across our city. We had a pretty wet rainy season this year and boy did the water flow! So much water fell from the sky that it pulled us out of a statewide drought.

Only rain down the storm drain. During both the rainy season and dry season, the Santa Clara River can become polluted when trash, fertilizers, oil, paints, mop water, pet waste and pesticides are washed into the streets, gutters and storm drains.

Storm drains were designed to prevent flooding when it rains and were never meant as a disposal system. Too much of these pollutants can make people sick and kill plants and animals that depend on water in the river, both above and below the surface.