When it rains, water washes over roofs, streets, driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, and land surfaces. Along the way, it can pick up a variety of pollutants, such as oil, pesticides, metals, chemicals, and soil. This polluted stormwater drains into the storm system that eventually discharges into our rivers and streams. The pollutants can endanger the water quality of our waterways, making them unhealthy for people, fish, and wildlife.

To help prevent these pollutants from reaching our streams we need to keep rain where it falls by increasing the amount of water that soaks into the ground instead of running off into the stormsewers. We also need to stop pollution at its source and keep stormwater clean. There are a variety of land management activities that can help us achieve both of these things, referred to as Stormwater Best Management Practices or BMPs.  BMPs can range from education programs like encouraging people to reduce their fertilizer or road salt use to the use of rain gardens or bioswales to filter stormwater coming off a parking lot to an oil and grit separator in a manhole at a gas station.  Everyone has a role in helping to keep stormwater clean.  Follow the links below to learn more about local programs dealing with stormwater issues.

Win SLAMM Model
As part of the DuPage River Watershed Plan Revision in 2007 the DuPage River Coalition (DRC) worked with Kabbes Engineering to use the Win SLAMM model to look at BMPs that could be used to reduce the amount of total suspended solids running off into our streams.  This model has the ability to compare different BMPs or combination of BMPs based on pollutant removal from different sources like roofs vs. lawns and costs.

Conservation@Home in the DuPage River Watershed
The Conservation Foundation launched its Conservation@Home program in 2005 as a way to work with landowners of all sizes to implement conservation practices on their own property. The program lays out easy steps that anyone can take to make a positive impact on their local environment. The DRC has adopted Conservation@Home program
 as the chief watershed education and outreach tool.  Click here for more information on the Conservation@Home program.

Rain Barrels & Rain Gardens
What a great way to keep water where it falls and to use it as a resource right at home or at work.

DuPage County BMP Manual

Stormwater Retrofit Program
(link to stormwater retrofit page)

Chloride Reduction Program
The DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup worked with CH2MHILL to conduct a Chloride Reduction Study to look at ways to decrease the application of rock salt in the winter months to address stream impairments due to Chlorides.  This study was released in August 2007.  Click here to see the study.

Local BMP Examples
To help increase the acceptance of BMPs DRC would like to promote as many local examples of BMPs as we can. Most of these examples are in the watershed, although some of them are from neighboring watersheds. Please feel free to send in examples in for posting. (link to local BMP examples page)

The following website provides a great resource for anyone looking for more information on stormwater management:

Stormwater Manager’s Resource Center
http://www.stormwatercenter.net/