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.
How storm water $$ is spent CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- If you live in Mecklenburg County, you pay a storm water service fee along with your water bill every month.
Do you ever wonder where that money goes?
The water that runs off our yards, roofs and roads in Mecklenburg County is constantly monitored. In fact, most homeowners 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.
Inside the Charlotte city limits, it’s about $7.50 a month per household.
Storm Water Services manager Tim Richards says their first priority is to keep people out of harms way.
“We use money to buy out homes in floodplains. They have flood insurance but once you flood so many times you have to get out of that,” Richards said.
The fees help pay 25 percent of the cost. The rest is covered by federal funds.
Storm Water Services also monitors the quality of our surface water.
When it rains there are a lot of pollutants that flow with the rain.
Your monthly fee pays for pollution catching devices like rain gardens and wetlands. They are built in the ground and remove oil, sediment and debris before it goes into the 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.
If you have a storm water problem, call 311. You won’t have to pay an upfront fee for crews to fix the problem at your home because it automatically comes out of your bill every month.
