More is happening in your backyard on a rainy day than you think. That wonderful storm that turned your grass green and made your flowers bloom also washed that patch of antifreeze or motor oil off your asphalt driveway, and flushed chemical runoff pollution into your watershed.

Put too much fertilizer on your lawn? Forgot to clean up after your pet? Unfortunately, you can bet you just introduced nutrients and pathogens into your watershed. And if the storm gouged a gully through your backyard, you just experienced soil erosion first-hand — resulting in sediments washing into and clogging your waterways. All of these sources are major contributors to NPS pollution and are contained in stormwater runoff from your backyard. The end result is polluted drinking water, poisoned fish, destroyed aquatic habitats and compromised water quality in our rivers and streams.

The key to understanding the problem of nonpoint source pollution in your backyard is opening your eyes to what’s happening around you.

List of problems:

Chemical Runoff
Nutrient Pollution
Urban/Suburban Soil Erosion