Ocean Pollution Prevention
- It's Up to Us!

Cities have two drainage systems - the sewers and the storm drains. The sewer system takes waste water from homes and businesses to a treatment plant before discharging it to the ocean. The storm drain system is designed to prevent flooding by carrying excess rainwater away from city streets out to the ocean.

Rain water mixed with urban pollutants often creates stormwater pollution. Urban runoff pollution may also flow to the ocean through the storm drain system. Pollutants included in stormwater and urban runoff are : trash, oil and other automotive fluids, paint and construction debris, yard and pet wastes, pesticides and litter, just to name a few.
Stormwater/urban runoff pollution contaminates the ocean, closes beaches, harms aquatic life and increases the risk of inland flooding by clogging gutter and catch basins. In all cities there are many miles of pipes that would take similar pollutants straight to the ocean. Each day many gallons of polluted urban runoff enter the ocean untreated, leaving toxic chemicals in our surf and tons of trash on our beaches.
This page has been put together in inform you how to prevent ocean pollution that results from "stormwater" or "urban runoff."
These Best Management Practices (BMPs) will help ensure a cleaner ocean and city. br> The following pages describe storm drain protection measures.
These pages include: