Storm drain stenciling helps the people in your community understand what happens to polluted stormwater. When people are aware of the negative environmental impacts of their actions, they are more likely to stop dumping pollutants down storm drains.
Storm drain ‘stenciling’ can be done with paint and stencils, medallions, pre-stamped grates or stamped concrete.
- Paint - Painting or spray painting with a paper, plastic or metal stencil as a guide is an inexpensive application for storm drain stenciling and easily implemented by volunteers. However, the lifetime of the paint may not exceed two years. Stenciling can be done on the street in front of the storm drain, on the adjacent sidewalk, or on the curb. Spray paint is the easiest to apply neatly, but contains air polluting propellants. Consider using environmentally-friendly paints free of heavy metals and low in volatile organic compounds.
- Medallions - Plastic, ceramic or metal medallions, typically 4 inches round, can be glued with a strong epoxy or embedded in concrete and bolted down. Gluing medallions is easily transferable to volunteer programming.
- Pre-stamped grates - Pre-stamped grates will last a long time (until the metal is worn down) and are an effective means to implement a city-wide storm drain stenciling initiative.
- Stamped concrete - While concrete is still wet, stamp an impression of the selected ‘no dumping’ slogan. Stamped concrete will last longer than paint or medallions. In addition, concrete stamps allow versatility in design since, unlike medallions, long-term stability is not based on size of the design.
