Stormwater Pollution Prevention
Even though you may live miles or blocks from local creeks and Humboldt Bay, you may be polluting creek and/or bay waters without knowing it. Before you discharge anything into the street, gutter, or down a stormdrain, stop and think!
Day after day, garbage, plastic, motor oil, sediment, and household/garden chemicals are discharged into our neighborhood street gutters. These pollutants are carried by rainwater, car washing, lawn watering and other runoff into the stormdrain system that empties into our local creeks and sloughs.
On a rainy day in Humboldt County, have you ever wondered what happens to...
- Motor oil, transmission fluid, antifreeze and gasoline on your driveway, in parking lots, or on roads?
- Cigarette butts and garbage in street gutters?
- Fertilizers and pesticides on your lawn and garden?
- Bare soil on a construction site, hillside or edges of sidewalks?
These are just some of the pollutants that mix with water and flow through the stormdrain system that runs beneath our streets.
Stormdrains are separate from our household sewer systems. Stormdrain waters flow directly into our local creeks, sloughs and Humboldt Bay without treatment of any kind. Stormwater at no time enters Arcata’s Wastewater Treatment Plant to even be screened for garbage debris. If it goes through a street stormdrain grate, then it goes directly to the nearest creek.
Before Arcata was commercially developed, rainwater soaked into the land or naturally flowed into streams and rivers. Now with impervious surfaces (asphalt, concrete, and buildings) rain water cannot be absorbed by the ground easily and is quickly channelized carrying all its pollutants into waterways as it is too costly for cities to conduct treatment. Once these pollutants reach waterways, they will never have the chance to get industrialized treatment to remove these chemicals. The best way to help with stormwater treatment is to make sure that these chemicals, garbage and sediments do not reach the stormwater system.
Did you know that simple household and workplace practices would help reduce stormwater pollution without any major changes in daily life? Things such as putting cigarette butts into garbage receptacles, picking up dog waste in parks, the Arcata Community Forest or the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary, buying more organically based pesticides and fertilizers, adjusting sprinkler heads so as they don’t run on pavement, and minimizing power-washing and/or soap used when car washing at home. Small practices such as these when followed by multiple people can have a compounding effect in improving water quality not just locally but globally.
For many years, the City has been committed to improving the quality of urban runoff through the development of a proactive, comprehensive stormwater management program that recognizes Arcata's unique position in the Humboldt Bay watershed and the need to protect our important natural resources.
For more information on ways you can reduce or eliminate pollutant discharges to the stormwater drainage system in your home or workplace visit the following links:
- What is stormwater runoff?
- Northcoast Stormwater Coalition
- California Coastal Commission Water Quality Program Statewide Nonpoint Source (NPS) Program Information Home Page
- Low Impact Development (LID): A Sensible Approach to Land Development and Stormwater Management
- USGS Effects of Urbanization on Water Quality
- California NEMO Partnership Fact Sheet: An educational program for land use decision makers that addresses the relationship of land use to natural resource protection
- Arcata Stormwater Management Plan
CONTRACTORS
Best Management Practices (BMPS) prevent soil and other materials from leaving your construction site. While these practices should be implemented year around, BMPS are required after OCTOBER 15 and throughout the rainy season.
Contractors, click on the Arcata BMP Manual link below to find the BMPS that are best for your worksite. For a quick overview of BMPs, click on the link below for the brochure Best Management Practices for Preventing Stormwater Pollution from Leaving Your Construction Site. If you would like assistance with your BMPS, please contact the City of Arcata Environmental Services Department at (707) 822-8184 or eservices@cityofarcata.org.
Please be patient, the Arcata BMP Manual is 525 pages. It will take a long time to download. Hard copies are also available at the City of Arcata Environmental Services Department and at the Arcata Branch of the Humboldt County Library.