{"id":875757,"date":"2026-10-09T01:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875757\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T01:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:04:16","slug":"sc-artists-paint-storm-drains-to-raise-awareness-of-lake-hartwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/875757\/","title":{"rendered":"SC artists paint storm drains to raise awareness of Lake Hartwell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Naomi<\/a>CLEMSON, S.C. \u2014<\/p>\n

The city of Clemson has asked local artists to paint storm drains in an effort to raise awareness of water runoff and its connection to Lake Hartwell.<\/p>\n

The second round of paintings has been completed, with roughly 15 local artists taking part in the initiative. <\/p>\n

Storm drains play a vital role in the purification process and, if protected and kept clean, can prevent flooding during major rainfall or storms. Water from the sky gets caught in water basins and then flows back into Lake Hartwell. That same water is filtered for drinking purposes as well. <\/p>\n

Ethan Barnett is the stormwater manager for the city of Clemson and told WYFF 4 that keeping storm drains clean helps protect wildlife in and around the lake, makes its recreational use more enjoyable, and can heavily impact the purification process for drinking water. <\/p>\n

“If they do get blocked by debris, whether it’s natural debris such as leaves and sticks or if it’s, you know, somebody maybe putting out grass clippings or something happens, to recognize that that is a problem because it will bypass the catch basin and go to the next one and can cause flooding issues,” Barnett said.<\/p>\n

Barnett told WYFF 4 he wants the public to understand the important role that storm drains play for the city and if someone notices one is clogged or impacted in any way to know they can call the city to get it cleaned out. <\/p>\n

This is the second time the city of Clemson has granted local artists the opportunity to paint the drains in hopes people will notice them and take care of them. <\/p>\n

“We got together in a collaboration with the utilities department. Mainly the stormwater division, to come up with this idea to kind of help display public art, raise awareness about storm drains and water quality and runoffs for the citizens of the city of Clemson,” Barnett said.<\/p>\n

The project was done in collaboration with the City of Clemson Art Center, where local artists were able to submit their designs.<\/p>\n

Emma Twigg is one of the selected artists who was able to take part. Her storm drain was painted blue and green, with inspiration from elements of nature.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to really emphasize, like, nature in mine. So, I use a lot of green trees and water. Elements to kind of demonstrate the beauty of nature and taking care of it and our role in keeping it clean and beautiful for everybody to enjoy,” Twigg said. <\/p>\n

She told WYFF 4 her hope is that people who see her painting learn responsibility for keeping the environment around Clemson clean and how local artists can play a big role in bringing the community together.<\/p>\n

“Everybody has been so kind and so sweet. People stopping by love to ask questions about it. They love to give compliments to the artists. And I know the artists love interacting with people. So, it’s really been amazing to see how much everybody appreciates what we’re doing for the community,” Twigg said.<\/p>\n

All of the storm drains are unique to the artist who painted them, which is what Twigg said makes the project so special, bringing the community together for the same goal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEMSON, S.C. \u2014 The city of Clemson has asked local artists to paint storm drains in an effort…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[30102,7053,368534,5695,368535,368539,304046,45487,167641,368532,192,368533,1023,368536,338366,368538,151707,86393,7221,3590,13937,79,5614,90409,368537,122188,12512,368531,11141,368530,211603,115448],"class_list":["post-875757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-awareness","tag-city","tag-city-of-clemson","tag-clemson","tag-clemson-art-center","tag-clemson-artist","tag-community-project","tag-drinking-water","tag-element","tag-emma-twigg","tag-environment","tag-ethan-barnett","tag-flooding","tag-flooding-prevention","tag-lake-hartwell","tag-lake-pollution","tag-local-artist","tag-local-artists","tag-nature","tag-people","tag-public-art","tag-science","tag-south-carolina","tag-storm-drain","tag-storm-drain-art","tag-storm-drains","tag-stormwater","tag-stormwater-division","tag-water-quality","tag-water-runoff","tag-wildlife-protection","tag-wyff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}