Another day, another challenge. But that Spokane Riverkeeper is keeping busy, this time with two tests in one day. The Riverkeeper is collecting answers from you on what you know about stormwater and the management of it in our area. Please take a few minute so they can get a better sense of what you know, or don’t know, which will help with education efforts.

From the Riverkeeper: National surveys reveal that the public believes the biggest source of water pollution is industry. Here in the Spokane River Watershed, that just isn’t true.

When it rains, it pours. When it rains on the urban landscape it pours toxic mixture of Valvoline, Weed-be-Gone, Miracle-Gro, tire dust, Lucky Strikes, dog poop and other crud into stormdrains then into our Spokane River and its tributaries. From street to stream, the urban storm sewer system carries this nasty cocktail.

So what are we to do? Well, taking personal responsibility does help. You can pick up after your dog, quit fertilizing your lawn, and get those oil leaks fixed on your car. And by all means, don’t dump paint, motor oil, or anything else down the storm drain and quit washing your car in the street. But personal responsibility, at least this type, has its limits.

The limit is this: If everyone behaved responsibly, accidents still happens. Fluids from car crashes run into storm drains. Tires and brakes wear down. Squirrels get squished. The problem is the pipes and the landscape. Streets, roofs, and parking lots are piped directly to streams. Yes, we should behave more responsibly, but we also must break the street-to-stream connection.

Even if the water running through storm drains was boiled, distilled, filtered, and sanitized for your protection, we would still have a problem with urban stormwater. Our highly paved neighborhoods cause rainwater to rush off the land rather than to soak into the ground. Ordinary storms cause flash floods that flush our neighborhood streams, eroding stream banks, stirring up sediments that deplete dissolved oxygen. And because water does not soak into the ground, the groundwater system is running on empty. The cooling springs that feed our neighborhood streams in summer run dry.

Storm-shedding streets, dysfunctional drains and polluting pipes are a bigger problem than individual responsibility can address. This is where collective responsibility must come into play. This is a job for….GOVERNMENT! (And government responds to you!)

Read the rest of his post HERE. Take the stormwater quiz HERE.

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