Less Toxic Home & Garden

Our Water Our World and Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

Union Sanitary District in partnership with the City of Fremont supports Our Water Our World, a Bay Area program that aims to raise public awareness about the effects that pesticide use has on human health and local water quality.

Many of the chemicals we use to control pests in the garden, clean around the house and help make our garden look and grow bigger and better contain chemicals that have negative impacts when they enter the environment. Some of these chemicals also pose a risk to our pets and children. When we water the lawn or rinse down surfaces these chemicals wash off and often enter the stormdrains. The storm drains carry rain and excess water down to local creeks and out to the San Francisco Bay with no treatment whatsoever.

Our Water Our World is a partnership between water quality agencies, hardware stores and nurseries to provide consumers with information about what products are less toxic to enable them to make better decisions about the chemicals they use around the home and garden.

One of the ways to address water pollution resulting from pesticides is with Integrated Pest Management (IPM), also known as less-toxic pest management. IPM is a strategy that emphasizes less toxic controls for keeping pests at acceptable, low levels. Currently, there are 174 partner stores throughout the Bay Area available to help you choose pest control products that reduce the amount of pesticides reaching our waterways. These hardware stores and nurseries have committed to providing the most up-to- date information to their customers by sending their garden and nursery employees to training annually.

 In the Tri-Cities, you may talk to one of these IPM experts at the following Our Water, Our World stores:

• Home Depot Union City 30055 Industrial Pkwy, Union City (510) 489-9400
• Home Depot Newark 5401 Thornton Ave, Newark (510) 494-1205
• Home Depot Fremont 43900 Ice House Terrace, Fremont (510) 490-0191
• Dale Hardware 37100 Post Street, Fremont (510) 797-3700
• Regan Nursery 4268 Decoto Rd, Fremont (510) 797-3222

Click on the banner below or click on the Our Water Our World (OWOW) homepage to find out more information about how to manage various pests using less toxic options.