1. Acceptance of Terms

   The City of San Francisco ("City") provides the Adopt-a-Drain program ("AAD") to you subject to the following Terms of Service Agreement ("Agreement") which may be updated by us from time to time without notice to you. By accessing and using AAD, you accept and agree to be bound by the terms and provision of this Agreement.

2. Description of Adopt-a-Drain

   Adopt-a-Drain is an initiative of the City to encourage residents to clear out blocked storm drains. The AAD website allows users to "adopt" a storm drain, or state that you intend to help clear that storm drain out if it gets blocked by debris.

   Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment or enhance AAD are covered by this Agreement.

3. Obligations

   If you choose to adopt a storm drain using the AAD website, you are under no obligation and have no responsibility to actually clear out that storm drain or any storm drain.

4. Termination of Obligations

   If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, offensive, not current, or incomplete, or the City has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, offensive, not current, or incomplete, the City has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the AAD services (or any portion thereof).

   Accounts that consistently adopt storm drains without clearing them out may also be terminated.

   Additionally, you agree that the City may, without prior notice, immediately terminate, limit your access to, or suspend your AAD service. Cause for such termination, limitation of access, or suspension shall include but not be limited to:

   1. breaches or violations of this Agreement or other incorporated agreements or guidelines,
   2. requests by law enforcement or other government agencies,
   3. discontinuance or material modification to AAD (or any part thereof),
   4. unexpected technical or security issues or problems,
   5. extended periods of inactivity,
   6. engagement by you in fraudulent or illegal activities.

   Further, you agree that all terminations, limitations of access, and suspensions for cause shall be made in the City's sole discretion and that the City shall not be liable to you or any third party for any termination of your account, any associated email address, or access to AAD.

5. City Public Records Policy

   Registration data, as well as data you submit using AAD, are subject to all applicable City, State and Federal public records laws.

6. Member Conduct

   You understand that all information entered by the user is the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated. This means that you, and not the City, are entirely responsible for all Content that you submit or otherwise make available via AAD. The City does not control the sign-in content posted and, as such, does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity, or quality of such Content. You understand that by using AAD, you may be exposed to Content that is offensive, indecent, or objectionable. Under no circumstances will the City be liable in any way for any Content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any Content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any Content submitted or otherwise made available via AAD.

   We are under no obligation to enforce this Agreement on your behalf against another user. While we encourage you to let us know if you believe another user violated this Agreement, we reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action at the City's sole discretion.

   You agree to not use AAD to:

   1. submit Content that is false or inaccurate;
   2. submit Content that does not generally pertain to the designated topic or theme;
   3. submit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically, or otherwise objectionable;
   4. harm minors in any way;
   5. impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity;
   6. submit or otherwise make available any Content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
   7. submit or otherwise make available any Content that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights ("Rights") of any party;
   8. submit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of communication not relevant to specific City service requests;
   9. submit or otherwise make available any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
   10. intentionally or unintentionally violate any applicable local, state, national or international law;
   11. "stalk" or otherwise harass another; or
   12. collect or store personal data about other users in connection with the prohibited conduct and activities set forth in paragraphs (a) through (k) above.

   You acknowledge that the City may or may not pre-screen Content that is shared, but that the City and its designees shall have the right (but not the obligation) in their sole discretion to pre-screen, refuse, or remove any Content that is available via AAD. Without limiting the foregoing, the City and its designees shall have the right to remove any Content that violates this Agreement or is otherwise objectionable. You agree that you must evaluate, and bear all risks associated with, the use of any Content, including any reliance on the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of such Content.

   You acknowledge, consent and agree that the City may access, preserve and disclose your account information and Content if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

   1. comply with legal process;
   2. enforce this Agreement;
   3. respond to claims that any Content violates the rights of third parties;
   4. respond to your requests for customer service;
   5. protect the rights, property or personal safety of the City, its users and the public.

   You may not attempt to override or circumvent any of the usage rules embedded into AAD.

   You may not trace any information of any other AAD user or visitor or otherwise use AAD for the purpose of obtaining information of any other AAD user.

   You may not attempt to gain unauthorized access to AAD or the computer systems and networks connected to AAD through hacking, password mining, or any other means.

   You may not release the results of any performance or functional evaluation of AAD to any third party without prior written approval of the City for each such release.

   You may not take any action that imposes, or may impose, in the City's sole discretion, an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on the City's technology infrastructure or otherwise make excessive traffic demands of AAD.

7. Interstate Nature of Communications on Adopt-a-Drain

   When you use the application, you acknowledge that in using AAD, you will be causing communications to be sent potentially through a variety of networks (Internet service provider, wireless phone network, etc.) As a result, even communications that seem to be intrastate in nature can result in the transmission of interstate communications regardless of where you are physically located at the time of transmission. Accordingly, you agree that use of the AAD may result in interstate data transmissions.

8. Submissions to the City

   By submitting feedback ("Submissions") to the City through the AAD feedback function, you acknowledge and agree that:

   1. your Submissions do not contain confidential or proprietary information;
   2. the City is not under any obligation of confidentiality, express or implied, with respect to the Submissions;
   3. the City shall be entitled to use or disclose (or choose not to use or disclose) such Submissions for any purpose, in any way, in any media worldwide;
   4. the City may have something similar to the Submissions already under consideration or in development;
   5. your Submissions automatically become the property of the City without any obligation of the City to you;
   6. you are not entitled to any compensation or reimbursement of any kind from the City under any circumstances.

9. Indemnity

   You agree to indemnify and hold the City and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, agents, employees, partners, and licensors harmless from any claim or demand (including reasonable attorneys' fees) made by any third party due to or arising out of:

   1. Content you submit or otherwise make available through AAD,
   2. your use of AAD,
   3. your connection to AAD,
   4. your violation of this Agreement,
   5. your violation of any Rights of another.

10. Modifications to Adopt-a-Drain

    The City reserves the right at any time and from time to time to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, AAD (or any part thereof) with or without notice. You agree that the City shall not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification, suspension or discontinuance of the AAD (or any part thereof).

11. Links

    The City may provide links to other World Wide Web sites or resources. You acknowledge and agree that the City is not responsible for the availability of such external sites or resources.

    AAD may facilitate your use of third party services not provided by the City ("Third Party Services"). The City makes no representations or warranties regarding the performance of such Third Party Services, their compliance with applicable laws and regulations, or any other aspects of such Third Party Services. Your use of Third Party Services is at your own risk and you are solely responsible for complying with all legal and contractual requirements necessary for using Third Party Services.

12. The City's Proprietary Rights

    You acknowledge and agree that AAD contains proprietary and confidential information that is owned by the City and protected by applicable intellectual property and other laws. You will not use such proprietary information in any way whatsoever except for use of AAD in compliance with the provisions of this Agreement.

    Disclaimer of Warranties

    You expressly understand and agree that:

    1. Your use of AAD is at your sole risk. The application is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. The city expressly disclaims all warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of title, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement.
    2. The city and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, employees, agents, partners, and licensors make no warrany that:
       1. AAD will meet your requirements;
       2. AAD will be uninterrupted, timely, secore, or error-free;
       3. the results that may be obtained from the use of AAD will be accurate or reliable;
       4. any errors in the software will be corrected;
       5. AAD will be free from corruption, viruses, hacking, or other security intrusion.

13. Limitation of Liability

    You expressly understand and agree that the city shall not be liable to you for any punitive, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including, but not limtied to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses resulting from:

    1. Your access to or use of or inability to access or use the services;
    2. any conduct or content or any third party on the services, including without limitation, any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties;
    3. any content obtained from the services;
    4. unauthorized access, use or alteration of your transmissions or content, whether based on warranty, contract, tort (including negligence) or any other legal theory, whether or not the city has been informed of the possibility of such damage, and even if a remedy set forth herein is found to have failed of its essential purpose.

    You expressly agree that the city is not responsible for any contact or interaction between you and any other user of AAD and that you bear the sole risk of transmitting through the application any content, including information which identifies you or your location.

    You agree that the negation of damages set forth above is a fundamental element of the basis of the bargain between the city and you and that the foregoing limitation of liability is an agreed upon allocation of risk between you and the city. You acknowledge that absent your agreement to this limitation of liability the city would not provide AAD to you.

14. Notice

    The City may provide you with notices regarding AAD, including changes to this Agreement, by email, SMS, text message, postings on AAD, or any other reasonable means now known or hereafter developed. Notices shall be effective immediately.

    Such notices may not be received if you violate this Agreement by accessing the AAD in an unauthorized manner. You agree that you will be deemed to have received any and all notices that would have been delivered had you accessed AAD in an authorized manner.

15. Minor

    You represent that you are 13 years of age or older and, if you are under the age of 18, you either are an emancipated minor, or have obtained the legal consent of your parent or legal guardian to accept and agree to be bound by the terms and provisions of this Agreement.

    If you have agreed to allow your minor child, or a child for whom you are legal guardian ("Minor"), to use AAD, you agree that you shall be solely responsible for:

    1. the online conduct of such Minor,
    2. monitoring such Minor’s access to and use of AAD, and
    3. the consequences of any use of AAD by such Minor.

16. Governing Law and Venue

    This Agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to any conflict of law provisions. You agree that any claim or dispute with the City relating in any way to your use of AAD shall be brought exclusively before a state or federal court sitting in San Francisco, California, and you irrevocably waive any jurisdictional, venue, or inconvenient forum objections to such courts.

17. Miscellaneous

    This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between you and the City with respect to your use of AAD, superseding any prior version of this Agreement between you and the City with respect to AAD.

    If any provision of this Agreement shall be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severed from this Agreement and shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions of this Agreement.

    The City's failure to assert any right or provision under this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

    You agree that any cause of action arising out of or related to your use of AAD must commence within one year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

    The section titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect.

Last updated October 22, 2015.

Thank you for your interest in adopting one or more of San Francisco's 25,000+ storm drains (also called catch basins). By pledging to keep your drain free of leaves and debris, you are joining your neighbors in helping to protect the environment, manage stormwater, and minimize flooding.

How to Care For Your Adopted Drain

• If possible, clear the drain before it starts raining.
• Put leaves and other natural material in the green compost bin. Put trash in the black garbage bin.
• Clear about 10 feet on both sides of the drain.
• Medical waste or needles? Construction debris? Toxic materials? Report it to the City's Customer Service Center, 311 on the web (or dial 3-1-1).

Drain Cleaning Safety Tips

• Never try to lift the drain grate.
• Clear from the sidewalk, not the street.
• Wear reflective clothing so vehicles can see you.
• Always wear gloves and be careful of sharp objects!
• Use a rake, broom, or shovel - not your hands.

Remember, the City and County of San Francisco won't be held responsible for anything that happens to you or others in service of maintaining your drain. Please be careful!

Free Tools and Training

We invite drain adopters to periodic events during the rainy season where they can receive drain cleaning trainings and free tools and supplies. Please keep an eye on your email for notification of these events. You will also receive email reminders from the SFPUC to clear your drains when rain is expected.

Spread the Word!

Excited about the Adopt a Drain program? Want to encourage your coworkers, friends and neighbors to participate? Utilize social media to spread the word.

Remember to tag us @SFWater and to use the following hashtags: #DrainHero, #AdoptADrain and #SFSewer.

Contact Us

Email questions and feedback to info@sfwater.org. We'd love to hear from you!

Adopt a Drain

The Adopt a Drain program empowers San Franciscans to "adopt" one or more of the City's 25,000 storm drains (also called catch basins) and pledge to keep it free of leaves and debris. The program helps reduce localized flooding and fosters community engagement by empowering residents and business owners to show their love of the City by taking an active role in taking care of and improving the neighborhood where they live and work.

Background

In late 2015, several San Francisco City agencies partnered with volunteers from Code for San Francisco to develop the Adopt a Drain SF web application.

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), the agency that manages the sewer system, including 25,000+ catch basins and storm drains, and San Francisco Public Works, the agency that maintains the database of sewer infrastructure assets, worked with the City's Open Data Program in the Mayor's Office to get the storm drain location data uploaded to the City's Open Data Portal (SF Open Data).

Code for San Francisco volunteers used a web-based platform called GitHub to develop the open source web application on Ruby on Rails. GitHub enabled contributors to work on the project from anywhere in the world. They modeled Adopt a Drain San Francisco on Boston's Adopt a Hydrant, for which Code for America had provided initial support to develop in 2012. Approximately 25 people contributed to coding and developing the app.

Volunteer Developer Opportunities

Are you a programmer with Ruby on Rails experience who wants to help improve and maintain the Adopt a Drain application? Don't be shy! We're always seeking assistance with the code! Click on the buttons below to view and follow our GitHub page.

Contact

Email questions and feedback to info@sfwater.org. We'd love to hear from you!