Gully Trap and Laundry Tub
Don't treat gully traps and stormwater drains as "black holes"!
The gully traps and stormwater drains are not provided so that you can conveniently dump all kinds of everything into the sewer.
Water from gully traps and laundry tub goes to the Wastewater (sewerage) system and, after treatment, the river or sea.
Water from stormwater drains goes directly to the nearby stream or river, untreated.
Unlike the "black holes" in space, the matter that goes in does come out again!
What does it matter if you pollute?
Wastewater
It costs the Local Authority money to remove pollutants from Wastewater (sewerage), and you pay them rates to do it, so you are increasing your rates.
It is impossible to remove all pollutants from Wastewater.
Stormwater
There's no attempt to remove pollutants from stormwater because stormwater should contain nothing but rain.
Pollution in the rivers and sea sickens or kills plants (or makes them grow and take over), and sickens or kills the creatures that live in or swim in the water – which includes you and your family.
Some of your Wastewater pollution and all of your stormwater pollution goes into the rivers and sea.
How can you pollute the Wastewater and Stormwater systems?
You pollute the Wastewater and Stormwater systems by putting or pouring your "unnatural" waste into them.
Wastewater
The Wastewater drains are the ones with a little wall around them.
There's very little that you should be putting into a gully trap. You can wash your paint brushes over it and pour dirty water into it, but if that water is from washing the car then you should throw it over a lawn or borders. The detergent in it harms the treatment plant bacteria.
Stormwater
The stormwater drains are the ones without a little wall around them.
The stormwater system is easy to pollute – just washing your car on the driveway or street does it. The detergent will run into the nearest stormwater drain. If the stream, lake or sea looks a little frothy, that's someone's doing. Wash the car when it's parked on some grass or do it at the car-wash. The detergent will be lost in the soil and won't damage your grass, though you should avoid putting detergent onto native plants. The water at the car-wash is recycled.
Don't let garden waste such as leaves go into stormwater drains and block them. Don't pour chemicals into them. If you go to wash your paint brushes over a gully trap, don't make a mistake and use a stormwater drain.
What's the harm?
Wastewater
Chemicals can make dangerous mixes in the sewers, so don't put any in there. This is especially dangerous if someone "downstream" from you puts in chemicals that react with yours. No mix of chemicals can be extracted or neutralised at the treatment plant. They all go through to the river or sea.
Chemicals will upset the treatment processing, where bacteria are used to clean up the human waste before it is trucked to landfill. When the chemicals kill the bacteria, the treatment stops working and has to be restarted.
Garden refuse will cause blockages when it reaches pipes that are narrowed by fat, oil and grease and cause sewage flooding.
Stormwater
It is vital to know that many creatures that live underwater – fish, shellfish and insects – breathe oxygen through gills. The oxygen gets into the water from the air. If you do something to stop the air from touching the water, or put in something in the water which uses up the oxygen, then they suffer from or die from suffocation.
Even a very small quantity of a pollutant, or just one accidental discharge of sewage, can drastically alter the quality of a stream. Fish, insects and plant life can be killed, habitats destroyed and the affected stream can take many years to recover. It makes a wasteland of the stream, instead of something to enjoy.
Fuel |
It damages fish gills so they can't breathe, poisons animals, and burns plants. Its cancer-causing parts accumulate in sea-life. |
Oil
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One litre of oil can taint 6000 cubic metres of water and cover 100 square metres of the surface, oiling birds and stopping air from touching the water and oxygen from getting into it. Its toxic parts – metals, sulphur and acids – dissolve into water and cause serious harm to aquatic creatures. |
Paint
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Paint is poisonous to creatures that come into contact with it and it can cover their gills. It also reduces the light getting into the water, which means that plants get less of the sunlight/energy that they need to live, and animals find it difficult to see their food. |
Food & drink |
It rots, and that process uses up lots of oxygen, suffocating the fish and insects. |
Detergents
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Even those claiming to be "biodegradable" or "environmentally friendly" can in the short term be toxic to fish, and will use some of the oxygen in the water as part of the process of breaking down into simpler chemicals. |
Household and garden chemicals
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Ammonia and chlorine are found in many household cleaning substances, and both are highly toxic to aquatic life.
Some cleaning chemicals contain formaldehyde - a poisonous carcinogenic substance banned in some countries. Cleaning chemicals that do not contain formaldehyde can contain strong chemicals such as chlorine and may be very high in ammonia - toxic to aquatic life. Examples of corrosive chemicals are: battery acid, vinegar, some cleaning compounds, acetic acid and cement wastes. They damage sensitive tissues such as eyes, gills and skin, make it impossible for juvenile creatures to survive, and burn or kill mature fish, plants and insects. |
Sewage |
Black water is any waste water containing human waste. Black water contains high levels of bacteria and disease, toilet chemical, ammonia and suspended solids. Black water is also very high in phosphates, nitrates and other nutrients. These promote rapid growth in plants and bacteria populations within streams. Waterways become choked with weeds and can run short of oxygen because of unnaturally high populations of micro-organisms. |
What should you do?
Car products
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None of these may go down drains or into landfill. They must only go to the special places at the transfer stations. |
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Paints |
Be "Paint-wise".
Buy water-based (acrylic) paint where possible. Offer leftovers to others to use, such as friends and schools.
Give them in their original containers to avoid mistakes and accidents. Or hand the paint to
Resene
or Enviropaints, who will recycle it.
Only a bit left? Let water-based paint dry in the can with the lid off (you can speed it up by adding cement, cat litter or sawdust) and put the can into the refuse bag. Brush solvent-based paint onto newspaper so that, as it dries, the solvent evaporates. Put the newspaper into the refuse bag. Some places will recycle empty tins. Resene and Enviropaints will accept them too for recycling. You can also use them as buckets or as your working paint-pot when you paint the next time. Lead-based (very old) and anti-fouling paint are very toxic and must be given to Resene, Enviropaints or the HazMobile. How do you wash your brushes? Over the gully trap, whether water-based or solvent-based. |
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Food & drink |
Take it home and put it in the rubbish bag, or put it in a waste bin. |
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Detergents
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Don't use more than you need. |
| Household and garden chemicals
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Offer leftovers to others to use, such as friends and schools. Give them in their original containers to
avoid mistakes and accidents.
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| DIY products
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Varnishes, solvents, glues and wood preservatives should be treated in the same way as solvent-based paint (above). |
If in doubt, ask your Local Authority for advice.