Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
What is a watershed? CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Water is one of our most important natural resources and we are all responsible for protecting it. This year our Water Wise program is expanding to Gaston County, the city of Concord and several other towns along with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services.
The majority of water we use every day comes from rivers. The Catawba River alone provides clean water to more than a million people. But the river also acts as catch basins for untreated water that runs off the land through storm drains and creeks. More than 3,000 square miles of land drain into the Catawba. All of that land makes up the Catawba watershed and the health of the watershed is directly influenced by us all.
With rapid growth in the Carolinas, the demand for water is at an all time high. Each of us must do our part to ensure that the quality or the cleanliness of that water doesn’t suffer.
It’s important to remember only rain goes down a storm drain. You’d be surprised -- things like excess fertilizer, illegally dumped used oil, paints and even garbage are just some of the things that end up in our storm drains. Every single storm drain empties directly back into the watershed.
Here are some very simple things you can do to protect our watersheds. Use only the amount of fertilizer and pesticides that you need and sweep and properly dispose of used oil and grease, household chemicals and leftover paint.
Remember, only rain goes down the storm drain.
