Home and Car Owners Can Protect Streams and Aquatic Wildlife

Own a Car or Home? You Can Protect Streams and Aquatic Wildlife

Maintenance Practices: Conserve water by repairing leaky faucets and toilets, replacing washers in hose connectors, and cleaning downspouts and gutters manually, without using a hose.

Sweeping Paved Areas: Instead of hosing, sweep sidewalks and driveways and put the sweepings in the garbage. If you have organic debris, compost it! You will save water and prevent pollutants and debris from entering streams from storm drains.

Indoor Water Conservation:

1 - Showers and Baths
2 - Toilet Flushing
3 - Laundry
4 - Kitchen and Drinking
5 - Cleaning

Nearly 65 percent of all indoor household water use occurs in the bathroom. Installing shower heads and faucets with low flow aerators and getting an ultra low-flush toilet (6L rather than 18L!) are an excellent start. If buying a new toilet isn't an option, it may be less expensive to buy water saving attachments to reduce the amount of water that older toilets use. Environment Canada has excellent information on how to reduce water usage.

Energy Conservation:
1 - Appliances
2 - Space Heating
3 - Water Heating
4 - Lighting
5 - Space Cooling

Turn off lights when leaving a room
Keep your thermostat low
Only run dishwashers and washing machines when full
Replace incandescent light bulbs with fluorescent bulbs that can save 1/4 of the energy and last 10 times as long
Set your water heater thermostat between 50 and 55 degrees Celsius (120 and 130 degrees Fahrenheit).
Insulate old water heaters and pipes

Often people forget, or don't even realize, that energy used in our homes comes from hydroelectric power sources as well as oil and diesel burning power plants.

While we wait for industry to convert to more environmentally friendly methods of energy production, reducing our private energy use as much as possible can go a long way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and destruction of wildlife habitat by dam construction.

Car Washing: Use automatic car washes that recycle water and properly dispose of detergents, or park and wash your car on grass instead of paved surfaces. Allowing pollutants to filter through soil reduces the waste that enters our waterways.

Disposal of Oil and Chemicals: Never dump oil or other chemicals down storm drains, and make sure these pollutants are not leaking onto driveways or other paved surfaces. Oil and chemicals on pavement can wash into storm drains that discharge directly into waterways. Take toxic substances to disposal and recycling facilities. Cover any oil or chemical spills with absorbent materials, such as sand or kitty litter, then collect and dispose of these materials in the garbage.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Finding new ways to use old things, giving used items to people who can reuse them, and sending materials to recycling centres helps conserve our limited resources for the benefit of future generations and our environment.

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