In Adams County, storm drains are not trash drains

The drain in your kitchen sink leads to a treatment plant. The grate at the curb does not. When rain or snowmelt sheets across driveways, sidewalks, and streets, it picks up dirt, oil, chemicals, and trash on the way to the gutter, and whatever it carries flows straight through the storm sewer into lakes, streams, rivers, and wetlands. Nothing screens it first.

In Adams County, much of that runoff drains toward the South Platte, the river that winds north past Brighton on its way out of the metro area. So a half-bucket of paint water poured at the curb, a quart of used motor oil, lawn chemicals washed off a yard, soapy car-wash runoff, and loose grass clippings all take the same one-way trip to moving water.

That is the whole reason small habits at the curb add up. None of these things belong in the gutter, because the gutter is not a drain in the household sense — it is the front door to a creek.

The line to remember is short: only rain belongs in the storm drain. Spot a spill or someone dumping into a storm sewer, and reaching the county’s stormwater contact does more good than trusting a treatment plant to catch it downstream, because no plant is waiting on that pipe.