General Storm Water Knowledge
What is storm water? Storm water is defined as surface runoff from rain or snow melt. Storm water is an important issue across MCB Quantico and in your own neighborhood. Storm water flows across the ground, pavement, or other exposed surfaces where it can pick up various pollutants such as oil, grease, toxic metals, spilled materials, and debris. Unlike the sanitary sewer system where water flows to a waste water treatment plant, storm water runoff flows into storm drain systems that discharge into our nation's creeks, rivers, lakes, estuaries, bays and oceans. When pollutants are picked up by storm water runoff or dumped directly into storm drains, they can harm our surface waters including the Chesapeake Bay.