Why is Public Education and Outreach necessary?
Through public education, residents gain an understanding of how their actions affect storm water quality and become more informed about storm water quality issues in their community. When citizens understand that poor water quality can result from common everyday activities, a major source of pollutants in storm water can be voluntarily eliminated. Perhaps more important, an educated public can be a broad base of support for a SWMP. The objectives of a public education program should be to promote a clear identification and understanding of the problem and solutions and to promote community ownership of the problems and solutions.
Education Programs and Outreach
Fort Bend Mud 25 is dedicated to educating the community on how to prevent storm water pollution. The District will:
- Partner with the non-profit organization Keep Sugar Land Beautiful (KSLB) to carry out some of its environmental public outreach and education programs. Through its affiliation with Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful, KSLB's programs help motivate volunteers to improve their neighborhoods and create a healthier, safer, and more livable environment. For upcoming events, visit KSLB's website at http://www.kslb.org/events.
The District distributes printed materials on lawn and garden management, proper handling of household hazardous waste, pet waste, littering, commercial storm water impacts, waste management, and other storm water quality related issues. This information is available at the District's offices and is distributed to its residents in newsletters, billing inserts, or in new resident packages. For more information, refer to the Outreach Materials and Kids Stuff, Useful Links, or Stormwater Pollution Prevention Tips.
- Business Education Program.
The District has developed a Stormwater Pollution Business Education Program ("Program") for its business customers. Our Program provides businesses with industry-specific activities that contribute to stormwater pollution and helpful tips on how to reduce stormwater pollution. Our Program is comprised of the following:
Industry-specific Best Management Practices Fact Sheet for the following businesses:
Explanation of the District's Rate Order concerning Stormwater Pollution, periodic inspections and fines for any violations thereof; and
The TCEQ Compliance Commitment (C2) Program
Our Stormwater Pollution Business Education Program provides our customers an opportunity to partner with the District to reduce stormwater pollution and meet our environment obligations. For more information, please contact (281) 277-0129.
- Mobile Business Education Program
The Mobile Business Education Program will focus on traditionally mobile businesses that are often more difficult to monitor because they undertake activities at a number of locations. Mobile businesses include lawn maintenance, carpet cleaning, painting and decorating, pest control, and gardening.
Initially, the mobile business education program will target lawn maintenance companies, since many homeowners in the community pay a contractor for this service. Eventually, the program can be expanded to include other types of mobile businesses.
The primary objectives of this program will be to educate mobile businesses on ways they can change or improve their work practices to:
- Reduce or eliminate storm water pollution
- Reduce the generation of waste
- Increase resource recovery through recycling, reuse and composting
- Achieve environmental best practices through cleaner production techniques
- Achieve cost savings in terms of reduced materials and water usage
- Improve environmental image with the local community
The District is distributing the following literature to mobile businesses engaged in landscaping activities which provides information on proper use of landscaping chemicals and in proper green waste disposal:
In addition, landscaping contractors in the District will be directed to pick up any litter before mowing so that the trash does not get shredded and washed into the storm drain. The goal of this educational outreach program is to reduce chemical and green waste runoff to natural watercourses. This is accomplished by minimizing the use of herbicides, fertilizers, and insecticides to no more than the recommended levels and by properly disposing of green waste resulting from mowing, tree trimming, weed eating, and edging.