It helps to replenish our limited water supplies, maintain stream flows and lake levels, and nurture our beautiful landscape. But as the rainwater flows over the ground during and immediately after a storm, it washes pollutants from the land, espceially paved areas and carries them to our water bodies. In fact, more than half of all the pollutants entering Florida's rivers, lakes, bays, and streams are carried by stormwater runoff. These pollutants flow through the storm drain system into local creeks and empty directly into pond, lakes, Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, where they can harm aquatic life, ruin recreation areas, and degrade water quality. Some of these controls are structural, such as infiltration devices and detention basins that capture runoff and allow pollutants in the runoff to settle out of the stormwater before it enters a water body.
Some controls are non-structural.
These controls prevent pollutants from entering the runoff in the first place. Practices such as soil erosion control, litter prevention, and proper pesticide and fertilizer application are non-structural controls. Naturally, pollution prevention is more economical than treatment after pollution occurs. Each residential and commercial property contributes to stormwater runoff. Pet wastes A single property may only be responsible for a small amount of pollution.