JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
What does litter, such as cigarette butts, plastic water bottles, excess fertilizers and pesticides from lawn care, soaps and detergents from washing your car, motor oil and other vehicle fluids, sediment and leaves, and pet waste have in common?
They are all pollutants that can be swept up by stormwater on your property and ultimately discharged into the nearest creek or stream, untreated and unfiltered.
How does that affect you?
By increasing awareness of what pollutants enter the storm drain system, we can actively help protect our creeks and waterways from manmade pollutants.
Discharges of contaminated stormwater from Joint base San Antonio can impact your enjoyment of local waterways such as Leon Creek at JBSA-Lackland, Salado Creek at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, and Woman Hollering Creek at JBSA-Randolph. These waterways are all part of San Antonio’s Greenway Trails, a 100-mile network of multi-use and accessible trails that link dozens of parks for running, hiking, biking and canoeing.
You may not realize, but protecting the quality of these waterways starts on your own property.
Have you ever watched stormwater run down the streets and think what happens to that water? Storm water runoff is anything that is carried by rainwater down into our drainage systems. This includes the water that falls on roofs, lawns or on paved areas like driveways, sidewalks, parking lots and streets.
As this water flows over these surfaces, it picks up debris, chemicals, sediments, and other pollutants and carries them into our storm sewers. Rainwater then flows through a network of underground pipes and channels before discharging into our creeks, rivers and lakes. This is why protecting waterways starts with you keeping the stormwater clean and keeping our waterways and community healthy.
These pollutants can have a serious impact on the creeks, rivers and lakes that we all enjoy. Protecting them starts with you.
Proper vehicle maintenance fluid disposal, cleaning up after your pets, correct application of fertilizers and pesticides and keeping your property free of litter are ways that can protect our local water ways.
Water pollution can start on your property in ways you might not see but affect your health and that of the community downstream. Knowing and being conscious about stormwater contamination makes our creeks, rivers and lakes cleaner, healthier and more enjoyable for everyone, as these pollutants harm aquatic life and can make water unsafe for recreation or drinking. Understanding what you can do to prevent pollution is key to keeping local water bodies clean.
Know what’s in the flow!
JBSA is not only your home and workplace for our personnel, but we are also protectors of the environment. If you see pollutants entering the storm drain system, please say something by reaching out to your corresponding environmental office. At JBSA-Lackland, call 210-671-4844; at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, call 210-221-1142; at JBSA-Randolph, call 210-652-4668; and at JBSA-Camp Bullis, call 210-295-8339.