Take Action to Protect New York's Watersheds
Remember – we all live in a watershed. What you do at your house affects everyone downstream and around you, so, get involved! Simple actions we take all add up to make big differences. On this page, you can find resources about how to take action, support your watershed, and reduce potential pollutants in New York’s waterbodies.
What are Potential Pollutants?
Pollutants are materials that can harm plants, animals, or humans. People can affect the environment's health when they pollute a watershed, often unintentionally. Pollutants may be discharged directly into a waterbody or washed off the land and into waterbodies, while others seep into soil and groundwater. Examples of pollutants include waste from septic systems, fertilizers, pesticides, and chemicals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. Additionally, road salt, pharmaceutical drugs, and animal waste can pollute waterbodies. Depending on the type and level of pollution, the waterbody may become unsuitable for fishing, swimming, or sustaining aquatic habitats.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Compost
- Recycle motor oil and automotive fluids: don't pour it in a storm drain or on the field next door, where it may end up in a waterbody. Return it to the place of purchase or other locations where the product is sold.
- Dispose of Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) materials such as paints, cleaning products, varnishes, fertilizers, and electronics to HHW collection facilities, or at Hazardous Waste Collection Events, so that they do not run off into local waterbodies.
- Reduce the use of fertilizers & pesticides. If purchasing fertilizer, look for the 0!
- Recycle yard wastes: compost yard scarps and use them in the garden and on the lawn in place of fertilizer.
- Recycle paper, plastic, metal, and glass whenever possible.
- Reduce air pollution: walk or ride a bike for short trips, carpool when possible, and plan trip chains for appointments and errands.
- Reduce litter: Put trash in containers and properly dispose of it.
- Visit our Keep Water Clean Page for more information on keeping your watershed healthy!
More Ways to Take Action
- Sweep off sidewalks and driveways rather than hosing them off. Hosing hard surfaces wastes water and moves the debris into the storm drains. There it can collect and clog the drain. Instead, collect and compost yard waste.
- Conserve water - Turn off the water while brushing teeth and washing dishes, take shorter showers, and fix any leaks. Additionally, wash your car on the lawn, or use a commercial car wash. Most commercial car washes recycle or pre-treat their wastewater, thereby reducing its effect on the environment.
- Know What To Flush – Don’t flush drugs, cosmetics, fats, grease, diapers, or personal hygiene products down the drain. These pollutants find their way out into the environment and can damage our watershed and everything living in it.
- Fight mud! Help control soil erosion. Sediment & fine soil particles can suffocate fish and destroy aquatic habitats. Cover bare areas of soil with mulch, or plant grass and native species to keep the rain from washing the soil into storm drains, ditches, streams, and lakes.
- Get together with friends and adopt a section of waterway. Plan a picnic with friends and clean up the banks of a nearby waterway, bike route, or highway.