Welcome to the City of Casper Stormwater website.
The Stormwater web site was formed to facilitate the cleanup of stormwater pollution in the City of Casper by educating Casper residents about stormwater - what it is, why stormwater quality is important and methods to improve stormwater quality.

Stormwater is the water from rain, melting snow, hail and sleet that flows across the ground and then travels down our street gutters into the storm drain. Stormwater, like the rainwater it comes from, starts off clean. The water is then carried by the street gutter into the storm drain inlet and underground pipe system. These drains are the inlets you see at street corners, the low points on the sides of streets, or in parking lots. The storm drain system in the City of Casper consists of street gutters which collect runoff, storm drain pipe, catch basins, detention/retention basins, creeks, and the North Platte River.

Stormwater flows DIRECTLY into our rivers, lakes and streams. It is never treated. There is no mechanism for treating stormwater runoff. So everything stormwater collects from the land surface, roadways, sidewalks, parking lots, construction sites, business parks, etc., is carried to gutters, stormdrains, ditches, drainageways, and finally ends up in our local rivers and streams ~ UNTREATED!

In the past, it was thought that water pollution was caused mainly by industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plant discharges. A lot of effort was put into cleaning up these "point sources" of waste water. Now, the effort is being expended to clean up "non-point source" pollution, water pollution that is generated all over and carried to rivers and streams in pipes and ditches. The problem with non-point source pollution is that it is very expensive to treat and discharge. It is not reasonable to construct a treatment facility for stormwater because of the massive amount of water that passes through the system during a large storm event. Such a facility would be extremely costly to build and maintain, especially since it would sit idle a majority of the time. The best way to improve stormwater quality is to treat the source - don't let runoff get polluted in the first place.

Residents play a big role in stormwater quality improvement. A slogan developed for the highly effective anti-litter campaigns of a few years ago - "Every litter bit hurts" - is equally appropriate in stormwater pollution control. The little leak of automobile fluids that one vehicle drips while waiting at the stop light is not a problem. Multiply that by the thousands of vehicles that leak fluids and wash it off into Garden Creek the next time it rains and it becomes a problem - a big problem! Find the watershed where you live and all of the area that drains into your creek and the North Platte River.

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Emergency Spills

People may consider storm drain inlets to be underground dumpsters and wash paint brushes in the street or gutter, put pet waste or used oil in the drain inlets, or place trash, debris, and yard waste into the street, gutter or storm drain. The outcome is the same. Everything that ends up on our streets and in the street gutter flows untreated directly into our creeks. If you see one of these situations, contact the Stormwater Hotline at 235-8283 to report any impacts to the quality of our urban streams.

We all play an important role in stormwater pollution prevention. As a citizen of Casper if you see an environmental damage situation, you should contact 235-8279 (non-emergency police dispatch). The Fire Department will respond to the site and determine the appropriate methods and procedures for keeping spills from reaching our drainages and storm sewers.