Simple Ways to Cut Nutrient and Sediment Pollution

...around your home

• Plant buffers along streamside property to slow erosion and to capture flow of polluted runoff. Tree roots absorb and slow the flow of nutrient runoff and prevent eroding soil from flowing downstream.
• Pump out septic tanks regularly, every 3-5 years.
• Pick up and dispose of pet litter. Pet waste contains bacteria and nutrients that can wash into storm drains and into streams affecting water quality.
• Conserve water. Take shorter showers with low flow aerators, use full load for dishwashers and laundry, garden with native plants that require less water than annual, tropical ornamentals. Use kitchen rinse water for watering plants. Overloading at sewage treatment plants can cause overflows of raw sewage and debris into waterways, especially during heavy rains.
• Reduce household food waste by cooking only the amount that will be eaten and recycle non-meat/non-fat leftovers to a compost pile. Using garbage disposals for compostable food waste consumes unnecessary electricity, overtaxes septic and sewage systems, eliminates a natural source for replenishing soil and contributes to excess nutrients in Bay tributaries.
• Use phosphate free products. Check labels on household products before you buy. Try non-toxic alternative products.
• Drain rain gutter downspouts into gravel or grassy areas to increase adsorption and decrease runoff.
• Use integrated pest management techniques and non-toxic alternatives for pest control.

...on the road

• Drive less. Walk more. Combine shopping trips. Carpool. Eliminating one 20-mile trip by car per week can reduce weekly carbon emissions by 18 pounds. Exhaust fumes contain nitrogen oxides that, in excess in the Bay, can cause algae blooms that cloud the water killing underwater grasses and subsequently depriving aquatic organisms of oxygen.
• Use alternate transportation such as a bicycle, city buses or metro-rail systems.
• Keep the car tuned. Exhaust fumes contribute to smog and airborne nitrogen compounds that wash back to the ground in rain or snow and into waters flowing into the Bay. Cars emit over 34% of the nitrogen oxide in our air and are responsible for one-fourth of all nitrogen compounds that enter the Bay.
• Purchase a fuel-efficient vehicle. While reducing the economics of ownership, you will be reducing consumption of fuel and thus lessening emissions.
• Use the car air conditioner sparingly. It consumes extra fuel, adding to emissions while leaking fluorocarbons which cause ozone depletion.
• Keep tires properly inflated, saving fuel and reducing emissions. An estimated 50% of tires on the road are under inflated.
• Decrease idle time. Idling wastes fuel and increases emissions.
• Dispose of used engine oil at recycling stations and clean up spills promptly. Even small amounts of oil from driveway spills and improper homeowner disposal can wash into and contaminate local waterways during rainstorms.

Simple Ways to Cut Air Pollution

• Use less electricity. Purchase Energy Star rated appliances. Industrial emissions generated in the production of electricity contribute heavily to the formation of greenhouse gasses and acid rain.
• Replace standard bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). CFLs reduce energy needs and save homeowner dollars.
• Use ceiling fans, window fans and open windows to ventilate your home. Fans use one-tenth the energy of an air conditioner.
• Tune up your furnace. Turn down the heat. Home heating spews over a billion tons of carbon dioxide into the world’s atmosphere each year. Turning the thermostat just three degrees down/up in the appropriate season would prevent 1000 pounds of emissions annually per household.
• Plant trees. They filter the air, give off oxygen and their roots absorb pollutants and reduce erosion. Reforest or replant large open, grassy areas instead of maintaining unused, sprawling lawns. By providing shade and evaporative cooling, trees can affect the temperature surrounding a home reducing the need for air conditioning.
• Consider using a push mower or purchase a low emission or electric model.
• Use fewer styrofoam products. They are non-biodegradable and can be toxic to aquatic life who mistake it for food. Gases used to create styrofoam
  contribute to smog, air pollution and acid rain.

Simple Ways to Cut Household Chemical Pollution

• Use natural cleaners and dispose of household chemicals properly. Never pour toxic chemicals down a drain, they can pass right through a septic
  tank or sewage plant and into the Bay.
• Wipe up spills of car maintenance chemicals instead of flushing them with a hose. Dispose of used fluids at recycling centers.
• Many household chemicals are toxic including paints, solvents, pesticides, mothballs, rug cleaners, car fluids, furniture polish and cleaning agents. Use water-based paint and clean the brushes indoors where the wastewater will be treated at a sewage plant. If pesticides must be used, try natural alternatives first. Integrated pest management practices will reduce the need for pesticides in the garden. Bat boxes and birdhouses are alternatives for mosquito abatement. Many natural alternatives exist for household cleaning chemicals.
• Apply fertilizer, including dried animal waste fertilizers, sparingly. Excess amounts will runoff into nearby drainage areas with the next rain. Try natural fertilizers and compost instead. Buy organic produce to increase the number of farmers willing to grow it.
• Use native plants instead of hybrids requiring fertilizers and daily watering. Most lawn care practices create fertilizer or pesticide pollution, cut grass higher and leave the trimmings on the lawn to naturally fertilize it.
• Reduce runoff to storm drains and streams by minimizing paved and nonporous surfaces. Use wooden decking, gravel or brick instead of concrete or macadam. Increase yard hydration while decreasing runoff pollution by directing rain gutter downspouts onto lawns instead of driveways. Wash the car on grass allowing soapy water to soak in instead of flowing to a storm drain or use a commercial carwash that filters and recycles water. Plant a rain garden around downspouts.
• Use unbleached coffee filters. The bleaching of paper creates dioxin, a toxic that finds its way into our waterways.