February 17, 2017
Keep Murphy Beautiful to have booth at Roundup
MURPHY (February 17, 2017) The Keep Murphy Beautiful program will be out in full force during Murphy’s Rainbow Trout Roundup on Saturday, Feb. 25 at the City pond, urging participants to think about clean waterways.
“Clean waterways, like our own Maxwell Creek, are important for several reasons,” says Candy McQuiston, Customer Service Manager and chair of Keep Murphy Beautiful. “Having clean trails along the creek is important, of course, but trash and pollutants also affect wildlife, and can even seep into our drinking water.”
While indiscriminate littering can be most apparent, grass clippings, fertilizers and other chemicals used in lawn maintenance, if not managed properly, can also introduce harmful pollutants into waterways. When these enter waterways or storm water drains, the pollutants can make their way into local streams that spill into the reservoirs that the community uses for drinking and cooking.
Maxwell Creek dissects the City of Murphy and, during rain events, can overtake its banks. Occasionally, flash flooding will make the normally low waterway dangerous. The water flow eventually makes it way to area lakes, carrying with it silt and other materials.
“When homeowners and lawn treatment companies fertilize lawns, some of the fertilizer falls on driveways, sidewalks, streets and other impervious surfaces,” said McQuiston. “That excess fertilizer should be immediately swept onto the lawn or picked up. Leaving it where it is opens the possibility that rain or sprinklers will wash it into storm water drains. Those nitrates in the fertilizer can harm fish, turtles, animals that drink from creeks and, very possibly, all of us.”
The same is true of grass clippings. Instead of using a blower to push the clippings onto the street, mowers should use the blower to return the clippings onto the freshly-mowed lawn. The clippings act as a natural fertilizer and cover for exposed grass roots.
“Keeping our waterways clean takes all of us,” she said. “Being careful with fertilizer, chemicals and clippings should be a priority for us, and for anyone who cares for our lawns and landscaping.”
Members of the Murphy Green Team will join Keep Murphy Beautiful at the Rainbow Trout Roundup, exchanging information and answering questions regarding the various clean-up campaigns to be held this year, with a special emphasis on storm water management and waterway clean-up.
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