Five Easy Steps

Scoop the poop

Help stop poo-llution! Picking up after your pet is a simple way to reduce water pollution while keeping our parks, neighborhoods, and yards clean. When rain washes dog droppings into storm drains, it spreads bacteria, viruses, and parasites into our waterways— endangering the health of humans and wildlife. 

Let’s do the math. Amazingly, dogs in New Castle County drop roughly 57 tons of poop every day.* If it’s not picked up, it’s like untreated sewage washing into our waters!

What you can do:

• Scoop the poop every time. 
• Use biodegradable bags or reuse old plastic bags. Dispose of them in the trash. Keep the bags near your dog’s leash, by the door, or in your car.
• Don’t place dog waste in a compost pile.
• Avoid letting your dog do its business within 200 feet of a water body.
• If you have your own septic system, pump your septic tank at least every three years.
• Avoid feeding ducks or geese. Feeding discourages migration, and when birds don’t migrate, their poop becomes a year-round problem.

*Estimate based on 45.5% of US households owning 1.5 dogs (Source) x 222,943 households in New Castle County (Source) x .75 lbs waste per dog daily (Source)

Garden for water and life

You can have a beautiful yard without harmful chemicals. Most lawn chemicals, including herbicides, fertilizers, and pesticides, aren’t needed and pollute the waters we rely upon for drinking and recreation. 

Gardening with native plants (originating in this area) supports water and wildlife. These plants thrive in our climate and are easy to grow and care for without using extra water or chemicals. Native trees, shrubs, and plants improve water quality by filtering pollutants and helping absorb excess water with their deep roots. Plus, their seeds, berries, and leaves are great food for birds, butterflies, and pollinating insects.

What you can do

• Let Delaware Livable Lawns guide your lawn care practices. Leave grass clippings, test your soil, and fertilize only in the fall if the soil test recommends it.
• Don’t use herbicides or pesticides. Also, avoid applying chemicals within 20 feet of waterways or next to or on paved surfaces.
• Encourage predators (birds, dragonflies, toads) and manually remove pests instead of using pesticides that harm bees, butterflies, and songbirds.
• Turn your yard into a Certified Wildlife Habitat by providing food, shelter, water, and places for animals to raise their young.
• Attract birds, butterflies, and other beneficial insects by planting native plants. For a small space, try creating a micro-meadow.
• Participate in a local tree planting or restoration project.
• Volunteer to help maintain a community garden.

Only rain down the storm drain

What washes down storm drains goes straight into our streams and rivers. Rainwater runs over our yards, parking lots, and roads, picking up pollutants like trash, oil, lawn chemicals, and soil before flowing into storm drains. Water in storm drains eventually lands (untreated) into our ponds and waterways. It’s a significant source of pollution in New Castle County’s drinking water and waterways.

Stormwater runoff can also cause flooding. Before our region was developed, most of the land was covered in forests, wetlands, and marshes. When it rained, most rainwater would slowly soak into the ground. Because our landscape now includes homes, businesses, and shopping centers, rainwater can’t soak through hard surfaces such as roads and parking lots but instead runs quickly over these surfaces and causes flooding. Storm drains reduce flood risk by carrying water away from communities to larger bodies of water. Flood risk increases when trash and yard waste clogs storm drains. Any trash that does travel through storm drains can make its way to larger water bodies, and eventually even the ocean. This causes problems for humans and aquatic life.

What you can do:

• Clean up oil and other car fluid spills or leaks so they don’t come in contact with rainwater.
• Keep grass clippings, leaves, litter, fertilizer, mulch, and loose soil off hard surfaces.
• Dispose of waste in trash cans and take part in community litter clean ups.
• Bag household trash before placing it in the trash can. This helps ensure all waste makes it into the trash truck—not on the street—on collection day.
• Wash your car on the lawn or use a commercial car wash that recycles water.
• Direct downspouts onto your lawn or garden, plant and maintain a rain garden, and/or install a rain barrel to collect and use rainwater.
• Stop adding chemicals several days before draining your pool, test pH, and drain over grass if possible.
• Use rock salt sparingly in the winter after shoveling.
• City of Newark residents can place yard waste for collection in approved containers or mulch and rake into the grass strip between the curb and sidewalk. All other New Castle County residents, be sure to check with your municipality, trash service or your HOA about special yard waste instructions. DNREC also has some good yard waste tips that may be helpful for you.

Dumping anything (but especially harmful pollutants) into storm drains is illegal. New Castle County residents should report any pollution going into the storm sewer system by calling or texting 302STOPPIT (302-786-7748), emailing hotline@302stoppit.org, or visiting 302STOPPIT. Newark residents can call the pollution hotline at 302-366-7000 or visit the city’s website.

Reduce household chemicals

What goes down our kitchen or bathroom drains can end up in the water we drink or play in. Sewage treatment plants can remove many, but not all, chemicals from our toilets or sinks, and we all pay for this costly treatment. Chemical cleaners, medications, paint, and lawn chemicals are common water pollutants that can pass through treatment and end up in our waterways.

Whenever possible, buy products free of toxic chemicals. Read the label and choose the least hazardous product to do the job. The words warning, danger, and poison indicate the product’s ingredients are harmful. Try to select products made from plant-based materials, such as citrus, vegetable, or pine oils.

What you can do:

• Read the label to avoid hazardous, toxic, or caustic products.
• Choose non-hazardous products when possible. Lemon juice, vinegar, hot water, borax, soap, and baking soda are good alternatives to harsh chemical cleansers—and less expensive, too!
• Follow instructions to use the correct amount of a product. You won’t get twice the results by using twice as much.
• Avoid using antibacterial soaps and soaps with microbeads.
• Don’t dump medicines down the drain. Dispose of medications here instead.
• Recycle hazardous household waste safely.

Cease the grease

Pouring cooking grease down the drain can lead to water pollution. Fat, oil, and grease harden in pipes, causing them to clog. Clogged pipes can lead to expensive homeowner plumbing repairs and sewer overflows that introduce harmful bacteria into our waters. Avoid creating a messy and costly problem for everyone, not to mention our creeks and rivers. Running hot water along with cooking grease doesn’t help. Eventually, the fat will still congeal and cause the same issues.

What you can do:

• Let kitchen fats cool in a container (such as a used soup can) before throwing them in the trash. 
• Wipe or scrape excess oil from pots and pans into the trash can.
• Place a strainer in the sink drain to catch food scraps and other solids.