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Up to date information and advice on septic system facts and your watershed
If you live in an area that doesn't have sewer service, the water you flush or drain is treated by an on-site wastewater treatment and disposal system, more often known as your septic system. This handy guide gives you the information you need to help take good care of your system and keep it serving you well for many years. Please download your copy today and help us keep Delaware's waters clean.
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Sudden wetland dieback
This
serious problem was identified in Delaware’s Inland
Bays in 2006 and is characterized by rapid death or failure
of saltmarsh vegetation to grow within a single or multiple
growing seasons.
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Trap Pond at sunset |
Delaware's
rivers and bays need our help.
The Delaware
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has asked
teams of citizens to serve on Tributary
Action Teams that will develop strategies for reducing water
pollution.
Those
of us on the teams --- farmers, shop owners, teachers, students,
mothers, fathers, ordinary citizens --- need your help with this
big challenge.
The evidence
of water pollution is everywhere: fish and clam kills, the discovery
of the micro-organism Pfiesteria,
huge algae blooms that rob waters of life-giving oxygen, warnings
against swimming because of high bacteria levels.
You might
think these are just isolated problems --- but they are warning
signs of the much larger, much more complex problem of water pollution
throughout our waterways.
Click
on a basin to learn more |
Finding
solutions is difficult because our waters are affected by the many
things we do on land, even miles from the bays. Activities such
as farming, lawn fertilizing, septic system use and poultry raising
allow nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, to leach down into
our groundwater, and then into our waterways. Although "nutrients"
are a good thing if they are absorbed by growing plants, in excess
they set off a chain reaction of pollution: they foster runaway
algae blooms, which deplete oxygen, which kills fish. (This is a
simplified explanation, of course. For a more detailed discussion
about the pollution in our waters click
here.)
It's
hard to control the pollution that seeps into our waterways, because
the land area that drains into each river and bay --- called its
watershed --- is much larger than the water area itself.
Water
pollution is a tough, complex problem, but we have to tackle it
— not just in response to a 1997 federal court case that required
Delaware to set pollution limits, but to safeguard human and environmental
health.
We've
got to act now if we don’t want the degradation of our waterways
to be the legacy we leave our children and grandchildren. The future
of our waterways depends on our efforts.
To learn
how you can help, click on your watershed in the menu. Don't know
the name of your watershed? Click on the map near where you live.
An autumn sunrise lights a boat waiting for
the day's fishing
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Tributary
Teamwork
