Do you use the waters of the State for recreational activities such as swimming, boating, fishing, or other water sports? If you enjoy these water sports and you believe it is important to have clean water in our lakes, rivers and streams, then you will be interested in what your community is doing to address water quality in this region. Have you ever dumped antifreeze or oil down the drain in your street, or dumped lawn clippings into the drain in your back yard? Did you know those drains and storm sewer systems go directly to the rivers in our area? Those drainage systems do not receive any treatment. Under new federal regulations your community must keep its rainwater (stormwater?) discharges from the storm water drainage systems as clean as possible. You can help in this endeavor. In the future we will be educating everyone in the Saginaw Area on how you can help keep our rivers and lakes cleaner. There will be a series of short articles during the next year that will provide you with information that will help keep our water resources clean. We may also ask you to complete and return simple surveys to help us develop programs to keep our storm water clean. The Saginaw Area Storm Water Authority (SASWA) cannot succeed without your help.
Some of our daily activities can adversely affect this fresh water resource that millions use for drinking water, providing food, and recreational activities. We have a responsibility to protect this valuable resource. Prior to the Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) there was no national system to evaluate the quality of storm water being discharged into our streams, rivers, and lakes. The CWA prohibits the discharge of any pollutant into waters of the United States from a point source unless a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit authorizes the discharge. On March 10, 2003 Phase II of the NPDES permitting system and its accompanying rules and regulations related to municipalities, construction and industrial sites discharging storm water came into effect. The affected municipalities in the Saginaw Urbanized Area formed the Saginaw Area Storm Water Authority in an effort to meet the state and federal storm water regulations. It is the vision of this Authority to address water quality issues related to storm water, and educate the general public on:
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Water quality issues related to storm water runoff in urbanized
areas.
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| How to improve storm water quality so we discharge only clean water to our rivers, lakes, streams, and drains. | ||
| How to improve the water quality in the Saginaw Watershed area to enhance recreational opportunities for the general public. | ||
| How to become stewards of our great watershed. |