As crews clear roads and parking lots, the excess snow is piling up. And the Department of Environmental Management urges cities, towns and businesses to avoid dumping all that snow into any body of water.

That includes ponds, lakes, rivers, wetlands and the ocean. Why? Well, all the salt, sand, littler and oil from cars pollute the water, harming wildlife and possibly sinking down into the groundwater.

Piles of collected snow should also be kept away from private wells, public water supplies – even the landfill where the melted snow mixed with garbage becomes a danger to groundwater.

The DEM understands there are extreme cases where there are no safe places left to dump the snow. That’s when they ask to be notified.

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