Homeowners associations can get free resources to help reduce stormwater pollution

Published: July 12, 2011

A wealth of free resources are available to homeowners assocations on Carolina Clear’s website to reduce stormwater pollution. image by: Peter Hull

CONWAY — From picking up pet waste to applying the appropriate amount of fertilizer at the right time, homeowners can take the lead to reduce stormwater pollution from their yards.

So imagine what affect an entire neighborhood could have with leadership from their homeowners association.

A wealth of free resources are available to homeowners associations on Carolina Clear’s website. They include sample newsletter articles, presentations and manuals about rain garden installation and rain barrels, yard care guides, stormwater awareness and other water-quality issues.

To take advantage of these resources, visit Carolina Clear’s online Non-Point Source (NPS) Toolbox.

Stormwater runoff is the nation’s No. 1 threat to water quality, putting streams, rivers, lakes and beaches at risk. Storm drains are part of a large system that drains into local surface waters, not treatment plants. In other words, stormwater is not treated. What goes down storm drains ends up in waterways, becoming an environmental and public health concern.

Christopher Ramaglia, a Carolina Clear natural resources Extension agent for Georgetown and Horry counties, said that as the Grand Strand grows in population, more impermeable surfaces are added in the form of rooftops, parking lots, driveways and roads, allowing more pollutants to run off into local waters. 

“As development spreads, more potential environmental threats exist that can negatively affect local water quality if proper management and preventative maintenance is neglected,” Ramaglia said. 

“We can’t afford to take water, a critical natural resource, for granted,” he said. “(Homeowners associations) have a unique and important role to play in pollution prevention through education to home and property owners.”

Carolina Clear is Clemson University’s stormwater education and involvement program. 

Through regional consortia, the program’s goal is to minimize polluted stormwater runoff by educating the general public, youth, builders, developers, homeowners and government officials about how to keep water in the state’s streams, rivers and basins as clean as possible.

In Horry and Georgetown counties, the Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium is a partnership involving local communities and educators from universities, state agencies and nonprofits.

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