Use an Earth-friendly fertilizer for your lawn and follow the proper application directions.
Follow the Seven Simple Steps to Water Quality
- Help Keep Pollution out of Storm Drains
- Fertilize Caringly
- Carefully Store and Dispose of Household Cleaners, Chemicals and Oil
- Clean Up After Your Pet
- Practice Good Car Care
- Choose Earth-friendly Landscaping
- Save Water
Never wash leaves, debris or waste into storm drains!
Managing your Home for Water Quality
Healthy Landscape Practices to Prevent Pollution
Waterfront Wisdom: Healthy Habits for Clean Water
Lawns, Lakes and Your Community
SOCWA Healthy Lawns and Gardens Pages
Sweep excess fertilizer and lawn clippings back on your grass, or bag them up, so they aren't washed into streets and storm drains.
Did you know many common household items are considered to be hazardous waste?
You can help protect the environment and your family's health by safely storing and disposing of these products:
- Household paints, dyes and stains.
- Floor wax, floor care products, carpet cleaner.
- Furniture polish, bathroom cleaners, stain removers, solvents.
- Pharmaceutical waste (old medicines).
- Nail polish, glue.
- Fertilizer, lawn and garden chemicals, pesticides.
- Antifreeze, motor oil, gasoline.
- Automotive batteries and dry cell batteries, fluorescent bulbs.
- Fire extinguishers, smoke detectors.
- Mercury thermometers, thermostats and elemental mercury.
- Computers, CPU’s, monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice.
- Cell phones, fax machines, copiers, and televisions.
Click to find out where to dispose of household hazardous waste safely.
Save Water at Home ~ Use Your WaterSense!
Calculate your daily, monthly, and yearly water use in gallons using a Water Conservation Calculator.
Then learn about ways you can save water at home.
By making just a few small changes to your daily routine, you can save water, save money and preserve water supplies for future generations. Look for the WaterSense symbol next time you are making a home improvement purchase.
Fix leaky faucets and plumbing. A dripping faucet or fixture can waste three gallons per day...for a total of 1,095 gallons per year!
Over one year, America uses 1 .7 trillion gallons of water to shower! Install a high-efficiency shower head to save water.
Properly designed faucets can reduce water flow by 30% or more without sacrificing performance.
Older, inefficient toilets are responsible for most of the water wasted in American homes. Replacing these toilets with newer high-efficiency toilets could save nearly 2 billion gallons per day across the country.
Only giving your lawn the amount of water it can actually use - actively growing turf grass only needs about 0.5 - 1.5 inches of water per week. Use a rain gauge to measure how much your irrigation system distributes.
Have you seen Illegal Dumping or Pollution?
Call a Pollution Hotline!
Macomb County, MI 24-hour Toll Free Water Pollution Hotline - 1-877-679-4337
Oakland County, MI 24-hour Pollution Hotline - 248-858-0931
Wayne County, MI 24-hour Environmental Hotline - 1- 888-223-2363
What to Report?
- Contamination to lakes, rivers or streams
- Pollution entering a storm drain or surface water
- Suspicious dumping to drains or surface waters
- Suspicious discharges from pipes
- Sewage discharges on the ground or into surface water
- Large numbers of dead fish
- Failing septic systems
- Construction site soil erosion entering surface waters
- Polluted runoff from storage piles and dumpsters
- Illegal connections of sanitary sewers to storm drains or surface waters
Source: Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner's Office
Thank you for learning how to reduce pollution and conserve freshwater!
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