Alpharetta, Georgia – City officials in Alpharetta want to remind people that stormwater drains are only meant to do one thing: move rainwater away from streets and communities. When additional things are dumped or swept into the drains, the effects can go a long way beyond the curb.
Stormwater infrastructure works quite differently than sanitary sewage systems, which send wastewater to treatment plants for cleansing and filtering. When it rains, water flows into storm drains and then via a network of pipes that dump it straight into neighboring creeks and streams. That implies that anything that goes down a sewer, whether on purpose or by accident, goes right into the natural rivers that run through the community.
City officials said that a lot of people don’t know how easy it is for pollution to get into local streams. People sometimes throw away grass clippings, yard garbage, used motor oil, household chemicals, and other things like that in storm drains. But once those things come into the system, they don’t get filtered out. Instead, precipitation runoff carries them downstream.
The effects might be quick and clear. For instance, oil that is thrown into a storm drain could eventually make its way to a stream that flows through a park or yard in the neighborhood. Kids who play near the water or animals that live in the vicinity can get sick from pollution that started with one person throwing something out the wrong way.
The city of Alpharetta calls anything that gets into the stormwater system that isn’t rainwater a “illicit discharge.” Keeping those releases from happening is a big element of keeping the city’s water clean and safe for streams.
Residents are encouraged to stay alert and report suspected pollution if they see it happening. The city provides multiple ways to notify officials, including an online water pollution and stormwater reporting form as well as the See-Click-Fix reporting platform.
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City administrators also link people to instructional materials, including a video that shows how stormwater pollution happens and what people can do to help stop it. Residents may help protect Alpharetta’s streams and the rivers that flow through their neighborhoods by keeping storm drains clear of trash and reporting illegal dumping.
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