How do roads impact water quality?

All paved surfaces (including roads, parking lots and driveways) are not permeable to water. When it rains, water is not able to soak slowly back into the ground. Instead, water flows in sheets over these surfaces (collecting all kinds of oils, road salts, candy wrappers and cigarette butts along the way) eventually making its way to the closest storm drain which finally drains into a neighboring water body. The water does not get filtered in any way before entering that water body. You can imagine that all kinds of pollutants enter our Creek from impermeable surfaces.
This picture features a frequently used maintenance road at the Myrick Conservation Center which features a porous paving system. These plastic cells allow water to soak back into the ground which means that it has a chance to get filtered AND recharge our aquifer!