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.
Water Wise: Storm water fees CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- If you live in Mecklenburg County, you pay a storm water service fee every month.
The water that runs off our yards, roofs and roads in Mecklenburg County are constantly monitored. In fact, most home and business owners are the ones who help pay for the repairs and upkeep of our water quality.
This is all part of the monthly storm water services fee. The designated amount you pay depends on the impervious areas on your property.
“The more area you have where water runoff is generated, the higher your storm water fee is going to be,” says Jennifer Krupowicz, Water Quality Educator for Charlotte Mecklenburg Storm Water Services.
“A parking lot at a shopping center is going to pay more storm water fees than an average homeowner because they’re generating more runoff,” adds Krupowicz.
The average storm water fee in Mecklenburg County is $7 per household. There are some cities and municipalities in the Carolinas that don’t have a storm water fee. In order to pay for storm water programs, it comes out of taxpayer dollars.
When it rains there are a lot of pollutants that flow with the rain water in Mecklenburg County. Your monthly fee pays for pollution catching devices like rain gardens and wetlands that are built in the ground. These remove oil, sediment and debris before it goes into our storm drain. Plus it slows down the water that eventually goes down the creeks and lakes during a heavy rain.
Money also goes towards flood prevention. In the past seven years, Charlotte Mecklenburg Storm Water Services restored 50,000 feet of streams. The goal is to have less erosion, cleaner water and a better quality of life for the fish.
Visit www.centralina.org to find out where the storm water fees go for your city or county.
