Do Your Part to Decrease Water Pollution

Every year, polluted water from the Mississippi River kills thousands of square miles of animal and plant life in the Gulf of Mexico. Water pollution impacts the lives of our wildlife, and can even make fish unsafe to eat. It can also affect your health and the cleanliness of our drinking water.

Manage Household and Auto Chemicals

Each day, you use chemicals that will pollute water sources. Fertilizer, household cleaners, auto oils, and prescriptions all pollute water. Try to minimize your contribution to pollution by minimizing your use of harmful chemicals (or at least, dispose of them properly).

How to manage common chemicals:

• Fertilizer should be used as little as possible to prevent harmful runoff.
• Switch your household cleaners to environmentally friendly brands.
• Properly recycle auto oils and fluids after they’ve been used.
• Never flush medicine down the toilet or down the drain. Call your pharmacy for appropriate disposal.
• Take any paint, oils, and leftover cleaners to a Hazardous Waste facility.

It is important to manage the disposal of your hazardous waste materials because many times sewage facilities do not filter them (like prescriptions). They end up going down storm drains and directly into ponds, lakes, and oceans.

Conserve Clean Water

You should do everything you can to keep clean water from being wasted. When you pour clean water down the drain, it ceases to be useful as it mixes with polluted water. And then there’s even more polluted, contaminated water for the world to deal with.

Easy ways to conserve water:

• Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or cooking.
• Take shorter showers.
• Set your sprinklers to the minimum amount for your lawn.
• Carry a reusable water bottle.
• Only wash fully loaded dishwashers.

Your Toilet Is Not a Trash Can

The only things your sewage system is designed to handle is water, urine, feces, and toilet paper. Toilet paper is even specially designed to quickly dissolve in the sewer. Flushing anything else can cause clogs, leaks, and introduce contaminants that the treatment plant is not designed to handle.

Things you should never flush:

• Tampons and tampon applicators
• Wipes of any kind
• Diapers
• Q-tips
• Condoms
• Sanitary napkins
• Cigarette butts
• Dental floss

Basically, use your toilet for what it was designed for and you will help improve our waters!

These simple tips can help you do your part to reduce water pollution. It’s not just good for our planet, it’s good for your children. If you have any questions about water purity, visit our website.