First it was volunteers cleaning up roads and highways. Now it’s volunteers cleaning up creeks. What a heart-warming tale.

In today’s Times-Dispatch, Rex Springston describes how a team organized by the James River Association is conducting a $100,000 “extreme makeover” of Oldtown Creek in Colonial Heights. The creek, he writes, is “dirty, trashy and ugly.” The problem isn’t the nearby chemical plants, which are heavily regulated, it’s the pollution and waste from run-off, including dirty, oil stormwater washed off a Sam’s Club parking lot.

The program, funded by state and private contributions, will clear the trash, plant streamside trees and install a bio-filter comprised of special soils and wildflowers. If successful, similar efforts could be launched for other creeks and streams around the state.