Throughout Mecklenburg County, storm drains flow directly into our creeks and lakes.  That means anything dumped down a storm drain is dumped directly to our streams. 

Some cities have connected or combined systems for storm water and wastewater (sanitary sewer.)  It would be very expensive to connect those systems in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and would require building more wastewater treatment plants.  During heavy rain, the treatment plants may not be able to handle flood water.