Clean water is everbody's business. Pollutants
can harm fish and wildlife populations, kill native vegetation, foul drinking
water supplies, and make recreational areas unsafe and unpleasant.
Water quality affects everybody's life in some way.
People can get sick from water based bacteria, it can make lakes and streams
unfit to swim or fish, it can even make your pets ill.
- - OR - -
Everybody can do their part to help prevent the types of pollution
that are caused by Stormwater Runoff.
What is Stormwater Runoff? Stormwater runoff occurs when
precipitation from rain or snowmelt flows over the ground. Impervious surfaces
like driveways, sidewalks, and streets prevent stormwater from naturally soaking
into the ground.
The effects of pollution. Polluted stormwater runoff can
have many adverse effects on plants, fish, animals, and people.
- Sediment can
cloud the water and make it difficult or impossible for aquatic plants to
grow. Sediment also can
destroy aquatic habitats
- Excess nutrients can cause algae blooms. When algae die, they sink to the
bottom and decompose in a process that removes oxygen from the water. Fish and
other aquatic organisms can’t exist in water with low dissolved oxygen
levels.
- Bacteria and other pathogens can wash into swimming areas and create health
hazards, often making beach closures necessary.
- Debris—plastic bags, six-pack
rings, bottles, and
cigarette butts—washed into waterbodies can choke, suffocate, or disable
aquatic life like ducks, fish, turtles, and birds.
- Household hazardous wastes
like insecticides, pesticides, paint, solvents, used motor oil, and other auto
fluids can poison aquatic life.
- Land animals and people can become sick or die from eating diseased fish
and shellfish or ingesting polluted water.
- Polluted stormwater often affects drinking water sources. This, in turn,
can affect human health and increase drinking water treatment costs.
Links to additional information
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/individuals_families/
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/business_industry/
http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/index.cfm
Interactive map from the EPA listing, Superfund sites, hazardous waste, toxic
releasers and water discharges http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/em/index.html
Environmental Protection Agency web site - massive site that contains information
about just about any environmental topic http://www.epa.gov/
Flood hazard, toxic waste and topography map http://www.hometownlocator.com/City/Newtown-Pennsylvania.cfm
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