Put on your bathing suit and go outside. Walk past your perfectly manicured lawn with the plastic pink flamingo, tiptoe past Rover's most recent bowel movement, side-step around your SUV, throw your cigarette butt to the ground and go sit in the gutter. Go on. Sit for a spell. I am sure there is some water running down to the storm drain. Lay back, splash around. Doesn't sound appealing does it?
That water in your gutter is making its way into the ocean. Directly INTO the ocean- the very ocean where you surf, swim, snorkle, wade, dive and recreate.
This runoff is commonly referred to as "Urban Runoff"
or "Nonpoint Source Pollution". It is a huge pollution problem that contaminates and closes more beaches than oil tanker spills. Nationwide over 350 million gallons of oil are discarded into storm drains, waterways and soil every year. States report that nonpoint source pollution is the leading remaining cause of water quality problems.
Runoff pollution is that associated with rainwater or melting snow that washes off roads, bridges, parking lots, rooftops and other impermeable surfaces. As it flows over these surfaces, the water picks up anything and everything -from dirt and dust to discarded plastic bags and cigarette butts.
Ever notice a rainbow-y glow to pooled water on the street? No, there is not a pot of gold there, but rather spilled petroleum products washing off roads and heading straight for the ocean.
What exactly is in that water flowing down your gutter? It can be a toxic cocktail mixed of any or all of the following ingredients: Excess fertilizers, herbicides, oil, grease, toxic chemicals, metals, sediment, pet wastes, livestock wastes and seepage from faulty septic systems.
These pollutants are not only bad for the environment, they are bad for your health. Swimming or surfing in this stuff can lead to; gastroenteritis, dysentery, hepatitis, ear, nose and throat problems, and respiratory illness.
The effects of nonpoint source pollutants on specific waters vary and may not always be fully assessed. However, we do know that these pollutants have harmful effects on drinking water supplies, recreation, fisheries and wildlife. As well as the heavy toll it takes on recreational use and the coastal economy -as the residents of Huntington Beach discovered this summer when
their beaches were closed for almost three months due to high bacteria counts.
Unfortunately, we can't point the finger of blame at the Big Bad Businesses of the world, but rather at ourselves. We all play a contributing part in urban runoff (especially me with my really big truck) and most of us don't even realize it: Heavy watering, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticide used on your perfectly manicured lawn; the plastic factory emissions for the pink flamingo; not picking up after Rover does his business; the gas guzzling, emission spouting SUV you drive and the cigarette butts thrown to the street all contribute to the degradation of our water quality.
Although it is our individual actions which are the culprits of this pollution, it is our responsibility to curtail individual actions and the responsibility of our state and federal governments to enforce existing regulations to help control this on-going and growing problem.
* Section 319 of the Clean Water Act established the Nonpoint Source Management Program. This program is designed to help states address runoff pollution by identifying waters affected by such pollution and adopting and implementing
("Urban Runoff article", continued on next page)
