FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      July14, 2006

SOCCER PLAYERS TO STENCIL ANTI-POLLUTION MESSAGE ON AIKAHI STORM DRAINS

            Dozens of Windward youth soccer players will take to the sidewalks of Kailua on Saturday, July 15, 2006, to stencil storm drains with an anti-pollution message. They will gather at Aikahi Elementary School at 8 a.m. and fan out through the Aikahi neighborhood.

            It’s the latest action in the summer pollution prevention campaign being waged by the Storm Water Quality Branch of the City Department of Environmental Affairs. Storm drain stenciling is one of several activities in which volunteers learn and help educate the public about the need to keep pollutants out of Oahu’s storm drains. Those drains empty ultimately lead to the ocean, and  the trash, motor oil and other pollutants that enter the storm drains end up in the sea.

            The message volunteers will stencil is: “Dump No Waste, Take Care Of Our Ocean,” or in Hawaiian, “Mai Kiloi ‘Opala, Mâlama I Ke Kai.” The stencil includes a picture of an o‘opu, the program’s mascot and a native Hawaiian fish that’s a biological indicator of streamwater quality.

            The City provides paint, stencils, supplies and safety gear to the volunteers, who stencil the message on sidewalks above storm drains. Hundreds of people have participated in stenciling over the years. Other pollution prevention projects by the Storm Water Quality Branch include adopt-a-stream and adopt-a-block community clean-ups. For more information, see www.cleanwaterhonolulu.com

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Contact:

            Iwalani Sato, Storm Water Quality Branch, 429-4112 

            Mark Matsunaga, 527-5767