Be Part of the Pollution Solution!

Each of us can add to waterway pollution without even knowing it.

So, what can you do to clean up our creeks and rivers? Be a PACE 10 partner.

PACE 10 stands for Partners Acting for a Cleaner Environment. The "10" is for KUB's accelerated 10-year capital improvement program to stop sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). Partners already include KUB; environmental groups; city, county, state, and federal officials; and businesses - but to really clean up our waterways, everyone in the community must be a partner.

Regulators call SSOs, which happen when wastewater leaks from sewer pipes before treatment, point source pollution. That means they know where the contamination comes from and who must address it.

But cleaning up point source pollution, like SSOs, fixes only a small part of the problem. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says non-point source pollution (NPS) carried by stormwater runoff is the biggest problem facing our nation's waterways.

NPS comes from many sources. Runoff from rain and snow picks up various natural and manmade pollutants and carries them to wetlands and waterways:

Most cities don't treat stormwater. That means everything picked up from roads, parking lots, driveways, construction sites, industries, and yards, flows directly into waterways. See the City of Knoxville Web site for stormwater ordinances, best management practices, erosion control measures, etc.

KUB works hard to keep SSOs from adding to waterway pollution. What can we all do to keep stormwater from carrying pollutants into waterways? Stop it from getting polluted in the first place.