Homeowner Tips for Improving Water Quality
Homeowners
can play a key role in cleaning up our polluted waterways through behavior
changes. The majority of pollution in our urban waterways can be linked to
common lawn care practices such as over applying fertilizers and pesticides
or not properly disposing of pet waste.
Before learning how you can make a difference it’s important to understand some key elements regarding water pollution.
Run off - Run off is stormwater that flows over impervious surfaces such as rooftops, driveways, sidewalks, streets an to some extent over residential lawns. As it flows, it picks up oils, lawn chemicals, pet waste and other pollutants along the way.
Storm Sewers - take stormwater run-off to nearby lakes and streams, untreated.
Watersheds - Everyone lives in a watershed. A watershed is an area of land that drains to a common body of water, such as a nearby creek, stream, river or lake.
Stormwater run off is the biggest problem facing our streams, creeks and rivers today; fortunately there are many things YOU can do to improve water quality AND save money.