Overview
Stormwater runoff is generated from rain and snowmelt that flows over land and impervious surfaces such as streets, parking lots, and rooftops. Stormwater can infiltrate into the soil, discharge directly into streams, water bodies, drain inlets, or evaporate back into the atmosphere. Runoff can be hazardous to our streams, rivers, and lakes. Storm drains do not go through a sanitary sewer system, so all the pollutants that stormwater runoff picks up end up being discharged into the waterways.
Poorly managed stormwater runoff can cause:
- Erosion - Sediment/silt can block flows in storm drains
- Flooding - large volumes of water reach the streams all at once instead of naturally through a period of time
- Health Hazards - toxic pollutants that are being carried in stormwater runoff
- Polluted runoff from a storm drain in Princeton
- Pollution Runoff - cities or towns can build up pollutants such as trash, chemicals, oils, dirt, and animal waste.
What You Can Do
- Dispose of grass clippings and leaves
- Do not leave loose trash and litter outside
- Invest in buying or making a rain barrel
- A littered storm drain in Princeton
- Pick up your pet's waste
- Plant native trees and plants which help filter stormwater and increase evaporation and transpiration
- Use only a necessary amount of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides and consider natural alternatives
- Vegetate or mulch bare soil
