To keep costs down: We all need water. We pay good money for clean water. The City is required to test for and treat contaminants in our drinking water before it can be delivered to our homes. If our source water is polluted, the cost of our drinking water rises. Preventing pollution before it reaches the waterways costs significantly less money than restoring dirty water.

To protect your property: Your property directly benefits from stormwater management. Rain that falls on a field can soak in; rain falling on your roof becomes runoff. Urban areas with lots of hard surfaces (roofs, pavement, buildings) have lots of runoff. If this stormwater isn't allowed to soak in or piped away from structures, the runoff becomes flood water. Repeated flooding causes property values to drop.

To enjoy the outdoors: Our stormwater runoff carries all kinds of debris from the hard surfaces in town to local surface waters. Every time it rains, the poo from someone's pet is flushed into your lake and vehicle fluids from the highway are carried to a nearby stream. When you fertilize your lawn or garden, any fertilizer that is not used by plants becomes fertilizer for algae in our rivers. If you like to fish, swim, or boat, you know that you cannot do these things in your favorite place if the water is unhealthy or has too much algae. Those restrictions are due to stormwater pollution.