Stormwater, man, watch out. In Seattle it rains aaaall the time. When it does, all the gunk, oil, trash, toxins, and nasty stuff gets picked up by the rain and carried into the sewer system. Really old sewer systems, like Seattle’s, send rainwater to the same place as sewage. That means that when it rains a ton, it overflows the pipes, and then guess where the runoff and sewage goes? The Puget Sound. The solution? Use different pipes.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/CSO_diagram_US_EPA.jpg
But there are more solutions too. Since stormwater is bound to enter our waterways somehow, we’d like to reduce its toxicity as much as possible. Right now, stormwater is the leading pollutant of the Puget Sound. One way of reducing stormwater impact is with various filtration systems. Basically make the runoff go through a bunch of rocks, roots, soil, etc. to filter out the toxins, before it goes anywhere else. This might sound like a lot of work, but there are some pretty easy solutions.
http://www.melioradesign.net/technologies/Environmental/StreetBumpout-Large.jpg
For our group action project we set out to educate people about stormwater. We got some good presentation material from various organizations and set up a booth with a lot of info, and educated a bunch of people. I’d call it a success.