Home Owners

Living in an environmentally friendly manner does not have to be a difficult task. Homeowners can have a huge impact on water quality, and many small improvements to your home can have significant changes on the health of a watershed and collectively produce substantial neighbourhood and regional benefits. Following this guideline can be your personal contribution to cleaner water, healthier fish and wildlife populations, and a greatly improved environment for your family and community.

What you can do at Home?

• Choose phosphate free soaps and detergents. Cleaners such as baking soda and vinegar are a safe alternative to household Chemicals. As well there are now a variety of all natural or environmentally friendly cleaners available commercially.
• Dispose of all hazardous fluids, paints, solvents, and chemicals at appropriate facilities. They are toxic to aquatic life and contaminate streams/marine waters after moving through soils and storm drains.
• Never flush unused medications down the toilet. Return unused medication to your local pharmacy for proper disposal (http://www.medicationsreturn.ca/home_en.php)Some substances or combination of substances can harm fish and other wildlife. There is also growing concern that antibiotics entering the environment in this way may contribute to the development of drug-resistant micro organisms.
• Pick up pet waste and dispose in appropriate garbage receptacle or at home. Pathogens from pet waste can contaminate aquatic habitats.
• Avoid putting liquid grease down the kitchen sink drain as it solidifies and may cause blockage of pipes in the sewer system. This blockage during storm events can cause the sewer system to be prematurely overloaded sending untreated wastewater directly into our  streams/marine waters
• Practice water conservation. By conserving water we are reducing the demand we put on the sewage treatment plants to treat our water and limit the chance of overloading the sewer system, which can cause wastewater to be released into our streams/marine waters untreated.
• Plant native vegetation! Native plants mean less care, less water, less chemical use and more habitat for wildlife.
• Minimize lawn size. A smaller lawn can reduce water use, chemical use, air pollution and habitat loss.
• Leave cut grass on your lawn. ‘Grasscycling’ will add nutrients and decrease watering.
• Compost yard waste. Composting reduces landfill volume and helps create great soil for plants.
• Reuse rain water. Redirect down spouts into the garden or rain barrel instead of into storm drains.
• Wash your car on a grass or gravel area and empty your wash water into the garden. This prevents soapy, chlorinated water from entering storm drains.
• Fix leaky cars. Paved (impervious) surfaces mean storm water with chemicals from streets are unfiltered and pour directly into streams and oceans.
• Empty pools and hot tubs into gardens after chemicals have broken down. Treated water that ends up in storm drains or streams will kill aquatic life.
• Have your septic tank pumped and system inspected every 3 years to ensure optimum operation. Septic seepage poses human health risks by releasing harmful pathogens into the water table and nearby watercourses
• Reduce, reuse and recycle. Newspaper, mixed paper, aluminum, glass and plastic can be reused or made into new products.
• BE PROACTIVE! Call Observe, Record, Report at 1-800-465-4336 to report fish habitat, environment, wildlife and fisheries violations