El Paso County storm drains do not go to a treatment plant

The curb drain in front of your house is not a smaller version of the kitchen sink. Water that goes down a sink runs to a sanitary sewer and on to a wastewater treatment plant. Water that goes down a storm drain does not.

Stormwater is the rain and snowmelt that sheets off roofs, streets, parking lots, and yards. In developed parts of El Paso County, it drains into the municipal separate storm sewer system, the MS4: a web of inlets, ditches, and ponds that empties straight into natural waterways. Nothing along that path filters or treats the water. Whatever rides along with the runoff arrives in a creek essentially unchanged.

So the gutter quietly carries more than rain. Paint rinse, motor oil, lawn fertilizer, pet waste, raked debris, soapy car-wash water, and loose trash can slide off a driveway, drop through a curb inlet, and surface downstream in a creek with nothing in between to catch it.

The simple rule that follows: if it is not clean rain or snowmelt, it does not belong in a gutter, ditch, or inlet. Wash buckets, dump them in a sink or toilet instead. Bag the yard waste. For the harder materials, like used oil and paint, the county stormwater page points to the right disposal route.