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For Immediate Release <br />Contact Debbie Meister, 651.647.6816 <br />Press Release <br />Summer Tips for Improving Water Quality <br />Summer is prime time for maintaining cars and boats, but some activities can harm our lakes, <br />creeks and rivers even if you live miles from a waterbody. Water from hoses or rain, washes <br />soaps, chemicals and debris off driveways, sidewalks and streets into the storm sewer. This water <br />then flows untreated into local waterbodies. To prevent polluted runoff, you can take these easy <br />actions: <br />* Avoid washing your car at home. Commercial car washes are an environmentally friendly <br />alternative because their wash water drains into sanitary sewers and is treated before discharge. <br />* Bring used motor oil to a free drop off site. Avoid spilling gasoline, motor oil, washer fluid, <br />antifreeze or other products on hard surfaces. <br />* Keep debris off sidewalks, driveways and streets. Recycle bottles and cans. Put trash from your <br />car in the garbage. Shake and wash floor mats over your lawn, not hard surfaces. <br />When soil or other organic debris such as grass and leaves wash into the storm sewers, they carry <br />phosphorus into our lakes, creeks and rivers. In the water, phosphorus feeds algae and lowers <br />water quality. Here's what you can do to reduce sources of phosphorus in our water: <br />* Keep your lawn healthy and reseed any bare spots. Plant flowers or other ground covers in <br />open soil. <br />* When you're done with yard work, clean your lawn and garden equipment on the grass, not on <br />hard surfaces. Sweep up soil and grass clippings. Never wash or blow them into the street. <br />* Remove pet waste and trash from your yard, sidewalks, driveways and streets. <br />* When replacing turf with native plants near hard surfaces, use wood shavings or other organic <br />mulches that knit together when wet and stay put during heavy rains. <br />* Leaves, twigs, tree flowers and other organic debris accumulate on roofs anal in gutters. Keep <br />organic debris from roof and rain gutters from washing into the street by directing your <br />