General Awareness

Background

As part of the Environmental Services 2018-2025 Strategic Plan, the Marketing Initiative focused on the importance of the community understanding how stormwater in Tacoma flows directly into local waterways, mostly untreated. The team, recognizing the value of art in the Tacoma community, worked together to identify ways to communicate about the stormwater system through public artwork. The intention being to raise awareness of Tacoma’s stormwater system in new, exciting, engaging ways, hopefully resulting in increased environmental stewardship of the system itself. In 2021, a creative collaboration between the City’s Environmental Services & Arts Department staff, local nonprofit Spaceworks Tacoma, and multiple local artists resulted in the implementation of 2 storm drain murals, 5 vehicle wraps, and the creation of 7 unique storm drain stencils. The storm drain murals by Angela Larsen and duo Saiyare Refaei & Gloria Joy Kazuko Muhammad made such an impact they were featured in a Tacoma Weekly article and garnered a lot of engagement on social media platforms. There was a buzz throughout the community about these projects, with appreciation for both the art pieces and clarity of the stormwater messaging. 

2022 Reboot - Getting Stencils and More Murals on the Ground With the overwhelming support of storm drain murals from the community, the value of continuing this work was clear. The Office of Arts and Cultural Vitality brought on a consultant to further the “If it Hits the Ground, it Hits the Sound” projects - specifically stencil and mural installations. The contractor began inventorying storm drains near business districts that may be appropriate for stencils or murals, with a focus on prioritizing those in areas with Low & Very Low ratings on the Equity Index.  Environmental Services and the Office of Arts and Cultural Vitality staff worked to refine the storm drain stencil designs and materials for installation in the spring. The contractor engaged with City Traffic staff for placement guidance and developed a document for installation best practices. During the summer and early fall, 9 stencils were installed in collaboration with local events and engaged residents 

More Murals, More Impact -The contractor also worked with Environmental Services & Arts Department staff to implement 3 additional storm drain murals in the Oakland/Madrona, South End, and Tideflats/Dome neighborhoods in October 2022. Passersby often stopped to admire the work in progress, engaging in discussions around the stormwater system, the effectiveness of murals for spreading awareness, and the increase in neighborhood beauty along with a sense of place. The explosion of excitement around the project is evident in the number of “likes” seen on social media posts depicting these works and the associated message about stormwater.

The City is participating with neighboring cities and counties, Ecology and Puget Sound Partnership, in a regional stormwater education campaign called Puget Sound Starts Here (PSSH).  This campaign began in 2009, and has included a television advertising campaign, website and social media efforts.  The campaign’s purpose is to educate residents about how their daily actions affect surface water quality and empower them to make good choices throughout their day in order to keep pollution out of our local surface waters.  Puget Sound Starts Here is a regionally relevant, broadly distributed high impact awareness program that supports local efforts to elevate the region’s understanding of stormwater pollution impacts.  Where appropriate, the City co-brands its surface water BMP messages with the campaign to enhance its impact.  

For the 2023 campaign PSSH focus was proper inflation of vehicle tires to reduce the rate of tire wear.  Why do we want to reduce tire wear?  The rubber in your vehicle tires contains a chemical preservative (6PPDQ) that helps to prevent the tries from cracking.  Unfortunately, this chemical is deadly to salmon.  But wait!  How are tire particles getting to salmon?  If you have read this far, then you can probably guess.  These particles enter our waterways through stormwater runoff.  Want to learn more about 6PPDQ? Check out the information below.  Download it and share it with friends.  It's up to all of us to make the changes that help protect the salmon and other marine wildlife.           

Northwest Environmental Business Council (NEBC) - Managing Stormwater in Washington Conference

In 2023, The City sponsored the virtual NEBC: Managing Stormwater in the Northwest conference.  The City hosted a table which contained stormwater messaging and resources that attendees could download.  The audiences at this conference were private industry and consultants, regulatory community and implementers of stormwater regulations.  The key messages promoted at the conference were technical standards for stormwater site and erosion control plans, LID principles and LID BMPs and stormwater treatment and flow control BMPs/facilities.