Courtesy of the city of Columbia, Missouri.
Why do drains in other areas of Walla Walla not have these? I have explored many parts of town, and the neighborhoods off of S. Howard Street were the first which I have discovered to have these logos. Is it possible that, because those neighborhoods are slightly nicer, they just have enough funding to add these logos?
The larger point with these is that I find it interesting that these logos were put in place near drains which were connected to smaller streams, rather than the drains connected to major streams such as Mill Creek.
From doing research online, I have found that a lot of the issue with stormwater pollution is that, generally, many people simply do not know that the drains go straight into the waterways much of the time. These logos are serving as a way for people to know where the water ends up, because many people do not know this. For instance, Phoenix has been working towards bettering their awareness of point-source pollution after they took a poll and found that only 1 of 4 residents knew that it directly flowed into local rivers (Canales 2010). Phoenix's Environmental Services Department has set up a website- complete with a printable PDF coloring book which teaching kids all about where the drain water goes. Additionally, they have an awareness website giving recommendations to their residents about what things to put down the drains and how to dispose of other materials.
Here is the link to the awareness website:
Also, I suggest checking the coloring book out (and maybe even breaking out the Crayons).
-Marra
Sources:
Canales, A. (2012, November 10). Phoenix website helps raise awareness on storm-water
pollution. The Arizona Republic. Retrieved from http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/20121110phoenix-website-helps-raise-awareness-storm-water-pollution.html
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