Be the Change for Clean Water - Ohio Stormwater Awareness Week

Communities across Ohio are urging residents to “Be the Change for Clean Water” and take action during Stormwater Awareness Week, October 16-22, 2022. Stormwater can push common household items – such as trash, lawn fertilizer, or paint -- into local waterways, threatening our environment and clean drinking water. During Stormwater Awareness Week, Soil and Water Conservation District’s throughout Ohio are urging residents to take one or more of the following actions:
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• Pick up trash in your neighborhood or a local park. It can be a family game to see who can fill up a bag first.
• Clean up after your pets. If you don't the excess nutrients and harmful bacteria in their waste can wash into the stormdrains and enter our waterways, untreated!
• Check the weather report before applying fertilizer to your lawn or any oil or chemicals to driveways and sidewalks. This will protect the environment and your pocketbook.
• Make sure lawns have 3-4 inches of topsoil under the grass. This will reduce runoff, as well as make lawns easier to maintain.
• Adopt a storm drain near your house. Pledge to monitor it and keep debris, leaves, and litter from entering the drain.
• Install a rain barrel. Capture and divert rain water from a roof and use it on your plants or to wash your car. 
• Plant native plants that have deep roots, which will help break up clay soil and increase the amount of water remaining on a property while benefiting birds, butterflies and bees.
• Plant a tree in your yard or install a rain garden. Trees can soak up 900 gallons of rain a year and a well-designed rain garden almost entirely reduce stormwater from a property.

Pollution left on roadways, sidewalks, driveways, and parking lots drains directly to our streams and rivers. These simple actions can improve water quality and reduce stormwater runoff. Stormwater can also erode away streams, which can cause flooding. Each year, Conservation Districts investigate multiple sources of pollution and assist homeowners concerned with stream erosion and flooding, all caused by stormwater runoff.

There is so much we can do for Clean Water in Ohio. Please take a moment at home and at work this week, to make your family and co-workers aware of what they can do to make Ohio a great place to live, work and play.

There are a few local initiatives and agencies aimed at stormwater awareness and education for you to check out. They include:

• Toledo/Lake Erie Clear Choices Clean Water Campaign
• Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments (TMACOG)
• Toledo/Lucas County Rain Garden Initiative

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