Save a fish, keep drains for rain

WRONG: A stream polluted with white paint.PHOTO/FILE

It's the season to be busy around the home with cleaning, painting and gardening high on the list of things to do while the weather is right.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) is reminding people that roadside gutters are only for rain.

There are a number of incidents each summer where council staff are called out because DIYers have tipped paint or other pollutants down stormwater drains, said Naomi Middleton, GWRC's Senior Environmental Protection Officer.

"Stormwater drains include the gully traps for rainwater that runs off your roof and down the spouting as well as the gutters and drains on the streets.

"Whatever goes down these drains passes, largely untreated, into streams, rivers and the sea," Miss Middleton said.

Unlike wastewater drains from the kitchen, laundry or bathroom which run through a treatment system, stormwater drains flow directly into our waterways. Putting paint or chemicals down these drains directly affects waterways as well as the fish, birds, plants and people who live or swim there.

Follow disposal instructions; clean your car on the lawn or take it to a car wash; clean paint brushes in the laundry sink or in a bucket that you tip somewhere in your garden and take household chemicals, to the landfills.

More information on saving our waterways is available at: www.gw.govt.nz/save-the-drain-for-rain/.