Polluted Runoff and Watersheds

1
Polluted Runoffand Watersheds
2
What is Polluted Runoff?

• Polluted Runoff is a cause of water pollution
• Its what happens when rain flows over the ground
  and picks up lots of dirt
• This dirty water then runs into our lakes and
  streams and even our drinking water

3
Watersheds

• A watershed is the area of land that collects
  rain water which will drain into our lakes,
  rivers, and ground water.
• A watershed could include combinations of land as
  different as forests, glaciers, deserts and/or
  grasslands.
• Wherever you stand on the ground, you are in a
  watershed

4
Your Watershed
We insert a GIS map of all of the surrounding
watersheds of the school being presented to, and
have a flag inserted at the schools location.
5
What are some of the causes of polluted runoff?

• Driving a car
• Pouring ANYTHING down the storm sewer
• Washing a car with lots of soap in your driveway
• Not cleaning up after your pet
• Throwing trash on the ground

6
Who does it affect?

• YOU!!

7
How does it affect you?

• Polluted Runoff is the main reason that many of
  our rivers, lakes, and streams are not clean
  enough to fish or swim in!
• We all need to be able to use clean water for so
  many things that we do everyday like drinking,
  cooking, bathing, washing, and even playing.

8
What can you do?

• Dont waste water
• Encourage your parents to be responsible with
  fertilizers-
• Dont pour ANYTHING down your storm sewers

9
What can you do?

• Dont throw trash on the ground
• Recycle
• Pick up trash that you see on the ground
• Learn more about your watershed!

10
Because we do not want this to be our future.

• This presentation was created by AmeriCorps
  VISTAs Marissa Pappas and Eva Murphy