Water quality
Picture everything seen on an average street: oil and grease from cars and trucks; pet waste; trash and litter; sediment and debris from construction sites; and a mix of toxic chemicals.

Now picture the same streets after a rainstorm. They look cleaner, right? Well, the debris and contaminants haven't just disappeared—they’ve been carried into storm drains, through underground pipes and washed into nearby streams, lakes or rivers. Every lawn, street and neighborhood is within a watershed, an area of land that drains to a common point such as a nearby creek, stream, river or lake. Every small watershed drains to a larger watershed that eventually flows to the ocean.

The actions people take can have far-reaching effects on a watershed’s environment. Watersheds support a wide variety of plants and wildlife and provide many outdoor recreation opportunities. Protecting our watersheds preserves and enhances the quality of life for Lenexa’s residents.

Regulatory information
The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires water quality standards to be established and enforced by federal and state law. The CWA prohibits the discharge of pollutants from identifiable sources – such as a storm drain – into surface waters without a special permit.

The permit is called National Pollutant Discharge Elimination system (NPDES) and was issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) to Lenexa in 2004. It has six standard measures all Phase II cities must address:

• Public Education and Outreach
• Public Participation and Involvement
• Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination
• Construction Site Runoff Control
• Post-Construction Runoff Control
• Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping

View Lenexa’s 2008 NPDES annual report.

Protecting water quality
Rain to Recreation’s water quality work aims to prevent and reduce point source and nonpoint source pollution on a watershed level by:
• Educating citizens on ways to prevent pollution and reduce stormwater runoff.
• Finding ways to engage the community – residential and professional – in protecting stormwater.
• Responding to emergency spills and pollution complaints – and trying to prevent them with ordinances and education.
• Issuing permits for commercial businesses, construction sites and land development to prevent pollution and sediment discharges and inspecting permitted job sites.
• Utilizing water quality Best Management Practices to treat and reduce stormwater runoff.
• Monitoring lakes, creeks and streams to identify problem areas and to help plan effective protection.

Want to help?
Be a water quality protection volunteer. Contact Mandy Stark, outreach and education specialist, for more information.