Activity Books Watershed Defenders Comic Book | Page 3

T he C ontaminator —D on ’ t F eed the M onster
T he T hreats A re R eal
The Contaminator may be fictional, but every day
there are forces at work placing your drinking wa-
ter and the environment at risk.
The number one threat to safe drinking water in
the United States? Polluted runoff.
What’s polluted runoff? Observe this.
When you go to a store or a mall, look around in
the parking lot. Most likely you will see some oil spots,
skid marks and maybe somebody’s spilled French
fries or their burger bags.
Now, let’s imagine it’s raining. The water
starts to puddle and form little rivers as it runs
towards the gutters. What is carried off with the
water? Yup, the French fries, oil, and tiny bits of
rubber we saw earlier, along with bird poop and
all the other junk on the ground. That’s runoff
pollution. Some of it is natural and some of it is
human made.
Where does the runoff pollution go? It goes into
storm drains or ditches that lead to the nearest
river, stream, wetland or lake: the same rivers and
lakes you depend on for water. Do you want motor
oil in your bathtub? The birds don’t either.
The dirtier water gets, the more expensive it is
to make it safe for you to use. One quart of motor
oil can pollute 250,000 gallons of water.
T he M ultiplication P roblem
Let’s say one car leaks a quart of oil every month.
Not too big a deal, right? What if 100 cars leak oil?
One thousand? One million? You do the math...
Runoff pollution doesn’t come from just
one place, it comes from all over.
The threats can be natural or human made, on
the ground or underground. Pollution can come
from homes, open spaces, farms or businesses in
town—anywhere water is moving.
When we pollute water, it hurts all of us—including
all of the people and animals who live downstream
from our town.
Hard surfaces, such as roads and sidewalks, con-
tribute to the problem since water runs off, instead
of soaking in. Areas with large amounts of pave-
ment and concrete usually have higher population
densities (the number of people per square mile).
The more density, the more potential pollution.
The Contaminator is a monster that thrives on
pollution. We can’t eliminate pollution altogether,
but by working together we can reduce it.

Watershed Defenders produced by Colorado Foundation for Agriculture
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