Out of sight, out of mind
After a dirty winter of salt and sand on our motor vehicles, many of us are eagerly awaiting for spring, the season we can once again wash our car in the driveway. Before you break out your hose and sponge, please consider the long-term impact your actions have on the environment.
If you follow the stream of soapy water down the street, you will notice that the trail ends at your neighbourhood storm drain. Just because your soapy water is out of sight, it should not be out of mind.
Let’s start with the storm drain itself. To help prevent flooding during rain storms, our streets are lined with metal grates covering storm drains that allow our water to drain from the streets. Everything that enters the storm drains must travel through a network of underground passages. The water and all contaminants that have hitch-hiked a ride will eventually reach our local waterways. Before reaching our lakes and rivers, however, this water is not normally treated at a sewage treatment plant in order to remove pollutants and other hazardous waste. As such, the soapy water that ran down your driveway as you were washing your car went directly into our most treasured habitats. This holds true with everything that is washed away from our streets including motor oil and even windshield washer fluid.
The motor oil you just washed from underneath your car is toxic and does not dissolve in water. Each and every year, Canadians release 4 million litres of used oil (either intentionally or accidentally) into our lakes, rivers and streams. Dangerous chemicals from paints, solvents, faulty septic tanks and even acid from used batteries are also found in our watershed which not only harms our local flora and fauna, but also ultimately impacts our drinking supply.
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