Officials Paint Town Blue to Curb Pollution

It wasn’t your typical day at the office for 10 elected officials Monday afternoon. Donning rubber gloves, masks, and fluorescent orange vests, the Ventura County supervisors, planning commissioners, and councilmen and women set out to paint the county blue. Or at least its storm drains.

Kicking off “Pollution Prevention Week,” they grabbed paint cans and a stencil to imprint “Don’t Dump--Drains to Ocean” above three storm drains at the Ventura County Government Center.

“These signs will make people think,” county Supervisor Susan K. Lacey said, sporting the mesh vest over her light blue dress and pearls. “In some cases, someone might have a piece of trash that they might not be taking to the nearest trash can, but they might see the sign. We all need to take a role in pollution control.”

While some--such as Camarillo Councilwoman Charlotte Craven and Ventura Councilman Jim Monahan--crouched to spray the message above the drains, others held up stop signs, controlling traffic in the county center’s parking lot.

Organizer Alex Sheydayi, with the county’s Public Works Department, said it was too soon to tell whether the stenciling actually prevents pollution.

“If nothing else, it educates people,” Sheydayi said. “We’ve had people in the past drive over catch basins and dump their motor oil.”

Elected officials from Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Santa Paula and the county attended the event, which was organized by the county’s Stormwater Quality Management Program.

In most cities, volunteer organizations such as the Boy Scouts and the Surfrider Foundation stencil the signs onto storm drains.