NORFOLK, Va. -- Thanks to a break in the clouds last weekend, homeowners and landscapers across South Hampton Roads broke out the mowers and caught up with fast-growing lawns.
Some cut the grass without a bag on the mower and left the debris on walkways. Others used leaf blowers to blast grass clippings into streets.
What they may not have known is that grass disposed of in streets flows into storm drains and can clog up the system, flooding streets during heavy rain. Grass also carries pesticides directly into area waterways.
“They don’t make the connection that what ends up in the street ends up in the storm drain,” said Cindy Linkenhoker, Portsmouth’s storm-water administrator.
Storm water in South Hampton Roads isn’t treated anywhere; it travels directly into neighborhood ponds and eventually into rivers that lead to the Chesapeake Bay.
In most cities, dumping yard waste – or any other material – in storm drains is a crime punishable by a fine of as much as $2,500 and jail time. But storm-water experts say they are trying to reach people before prosecution becomes necessary.
“It’s so much easier to get people to not do the wrong things than to try to clean up the water after they’ve done it,” said Bill Johnston, a public works administrator in Virginia Beach. “We’re working hard on public education. Little by little, I think people are catching on.”
But not everyone has received the message. Although officials could not provide an exact number of clogged storm drains, they said that at least some of the flooding on low-lying streets during heavy rains can be blamed on yard waste backing up the system.
When public works employees are out on Norfolk’s roads, they take educational materials with them, said June Moser, an environmental specialist with the city. Landscapers may get a written warning or a summons if it’s a repeat offense, Moser said.
“Bagging it up would be the ideal thing to do,” she said. “It’s fine to reuse it. Or compost it somehow.”
That’s fine with Drew Thow, who owns E-Z Mow Lawn Care in Virginia Beach. Thow and his half-dozen employees use mulching mowers that put the grass back in the lawns.
“What we teach all our guys is when you’re blowing, you blow up the driveway toward the house and you blow the trimmings back on the lawn,” Thow said.
Sue Clifton, who owns Chesapeake Grounds with her husband, said her employees are taught to mulch the lawn clippings and blow trimmings into planting beds, behind bushes. But she has seen people in her own neighborhood blowing grass into the street.
Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Portsmouth all have information on their Web sites about storm-water systems and how to properly dispose of grass clippings, leaves and other material.
City storm-water experts also work with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission on TV and radio commercials, brochures and educational programs for the public, said Julia Hillegass, a planner with the commission. Their committee, HR Storm, also has its own educational Web site, hrstorm.org.
“Between us and the localities we send out thousands of brochures a year,’’ Hillegass said.
“We’re not judgmental. If they don’t know what to do, we’d like them to ask. Pick up the phone, get on the Web. There’s lots of information easily accessible.”