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How A Construction Site Pollutes
    
   
   
    How liquid chemicals and litter get into the local waterways is pretty straight forward. Liquids get washed down storm drains whenever they have not been correctly disposed of or protected from the weather. Once a good rain comes through they easily move from where they were left to flowing down storm drains. Other times they are purposefully disposed of down storm drains or into a nearby stream. Litter accumulates on a site and eventually gets blown into or washed down storm drains.
    
    Litter can easily be taken care of by disposing it in trash receptacles. Chemicals should be disposed of according to local hazmat regulations.
    
    Keeping dirt from going down the storm drain is harder to do. After a strong weather front comes through dirt begins creeping from where it started to the storm drains. This movement of dirt can also occur through the normal use of water on a construction site.    
   
   
    Here you can see dirt that has begun moving from the elevated construciton site down onto the sidewalk. There is nothing holding the dirt back from eroding. Eventually, the dirt will continue moving further towards the street until it's in the gutters. Then it can easily be washed down the storm drains.
   
    It is economically impractical to have a crew of men whose sole job is to shovel eroded dirt back onto lots. They would have to work 24/7 and be able to move fast enough to handle a storm that effects an entire construction site. Because of the mandates of the Clean Water Act it's necessary that a site uses preventative erosion measures.    
   
   
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