We use a lot of water in and around the house. If your house is connected to a central sewer system, wastewater from your shower, toilet, dishes and laundry is sent to a regional wastewater treatment plant. If not, you likely have a septic tank in your yard.
How Water Travels from Rain Gutters to the 'Glades
Stormwater runoff percolates to groundwater, evaporates and/or is collected in the stormwater drain. Stormwater drains don't treat the water flowing through them. They discharge water directly into a nearby lake, pond or canal. Many lakes and ponds are connected to a canal that drains to either the ocean, or to the Everglades.
That's why everything you do on your lawn, driveway and sidewalks can be picked up by stormwater runoff, and make its way to an area where it could either percolate into the ground, evaporate or flow into a stormwater drain.
Over-irrigation and heavy rainfall can both capture fertilizer from your lawn and carry it somewhere else!
When fertilizer is spilled, or spread onto driveways and sidewalks, it can be flushed into a lake, canal or stormwater drain. And think about all the other things many of us do on or near driveways and in yards (car washing, cleaning paint brushes and rollers, cleaning materials used for plastering or dry-wall mud, even dumping excess cleaning materials or chemicals, etc.) Each of these activities can carry pollutants into the ground water and surface water, contaminating the environment and threatening our drinking water sources, and polluting the Everglades and the oceans.
You should know that the water that percolates in your back yard and gradually seeps through the soil to groundwater might eventually be the source of drinking water for you or someone else. If you use a well for irrigation, that water may be coming from someone else's yard.
Water, like the Everglades, is a shared resource, which is why it is in all our best interests to be good neighbors! Find out how each one of us can help save the Everglades by what we do: in our lawns and gardens; in our homes; and in the larger landscapes all around us.
Yesterday & Today
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