Did you know the stormwater that enters our drains and inlets flows directly to our streams and rivers without any filtration?
This means that pollutants in our ditches, on our roads and parking lots end up in our rivers. Items likes cigarette butts, plastic bags, bottles, and grass clippings all impact aquatic life. Most pollution happens when people carelessly miss the trashcan or absent-mindedly throw their cigarette butts on the street.
However, there are people who intentionally pollute. They pour oil, paint, concrete and other items directly into storm drains with little regard to the streams they are polluting. In an effort to educate, the Stormwater Department has implemented a program to label our storm drains and inlets that discharge stormwater into our streams and rivers. Our goal is to make a potential polluter hesitate and think about what his/her actions could be doing to our environment.