What is storm water

What is storm water?

Storm water is rainwater, snow melt or even water from a garden hose that isn’t absorbed into the soil. It’s not treated at a treatment plant.

Storm water runs off rooftops, down street curbs and across parking lots to storm drains. Storm water pipes empty directly into creeks and lakes. Whatever goes down storm drains ends up in our drinking water supply.

Why isn’t storm water treated?

Storm Water problems

As a community grows, so do storm water problems.

Storm Water flows out of pipes and into streams

Storm water flows out of pipes and directly into streams

        When there’s too much storm water, it can cause flooding. A typical city block generates five times
        more runoff than a woodland area of the same size.

        When the storm water picks up pollution as it flows, it contaminates our streams, rivers and lakes.

What Storm Water Services does:

reduces flood risks
improves water quality in our streams, rivers, lakes, and ponds.

Effective storm water management involves:

engineering
science
land use planning
regulations
educating the public.