What is stormwater?

When rain or melting snow picks up trash or chemicals, that's stormwater pollution. It's the fastest growing type of water pollution in Massachusetts. As stormwater flows it picks up oils, salt, litter, sediment and other pollutants. Impervious areas prevent stormwater runoff from naturally soaking into the ground. These areas include buildings, driveways, parking lots, sidewalks and streets.

This stormwater runoff can flow directly into the Town’s street storm drain collection system, or travel overland before it empties into water bodies like a pond, stream, river, or wetland with little or no treatment to remove the pollutants that could be transporting. These are the same waterbodies we use for recreating and providing public drinking water.

Stormwater is a pollution problem that affects everyone. If we all do our part to help, we can reach our goal of clean and healthy waterways. Take a look at the Planning Department's Stormwater webpage to see what the Town of Lincoln is doing to control stormwater pollution. Businesses, institutions and developers should also visit this page to see how they can help.