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MS4 Education Outreach Requirements 2024-2029

MS4 Permit E&O Requirements for 2024 – 2029:

WWA Phase I Draft 2024 – 2029 WWA Phase II Draft 2024 EWA Phase Draft II
S5.C.11 Public Education and Outreach S5.C.2 Public Education and Outreach S5.B.1 Public Education and Outreach
The SWMP shall include an E&O program designed to:
• Build general awareness about methods to address and reduce stormwater runoff.
• Effect behavior change to reduce or eliminate behaviors and practices that cause or contribute to adverse stormwater impacts.
• Create stewardship opportunities that encourages community engagement in addressing the impacts from stormwater runoff.
Permittees may choose to meet these requirements individually or as a member of a regional group. Regional collaboration on general awareness or behavior change programs, or both, includes Permittees developing a consistent message, determining best methods for communicating the message, and when appropriate, creating strategies to effect behavior change. If a Permittee chooses to adopt one or more elements of a regional program, the Permittee should participate in the regional group and shall implement the adopted element(s) of the regional program in the local jurisdiction The SWMP shall include an E&O program designed to:
• Build general awareness about methods to address and reduce impacts from stormwater runoff.
• Effect behavior change to reduce or eliminate behaviors and practices that cause or contribute to adverse stormwater impacts. AND
• Create stewardship opportunities that encourages community engagement in addressing the impacts from stormwater runoff.
Permittees may choose to meet these requirements individually or as a member of a regional group. Regional collaboration on general awareness or behavior change programs, or both, includes Permittees developing a consistent message, determining best methods for communicating the message, and when appropriate, creating strategies to effect behavior change. If a Permittee chooses to adopt one or more elements of a regional program, the Permittee should participate in the regional group and shall implement the adopted element(s) of the regional program in the local jurisdiction. Permittees shall implement a public education and outreach program designed to educate the priority audiences about the impacts of stormwater discharges to water bodies and the steps to take to reduce pollutants in stormwater. Outreach and educational efforts should include a multimedia approach and shall be targeted and presented to specific audiences for increased effectiveness. The education program may be developed and implemented locally or regionally.
Based on the priority audience’s demographic, the Permittee shall consider delivering selected messages in language(s) other than English.
Minimum performance measures: The minimum performance measures are: The minimum performance measures are:
a. Each Permittee shall implement an education and outreach program. The program design shall be based on local or regional (or both) water quality information and priority audience characteristics to identify high priority audiences, subject areas, and/or BMPs. Based on the priority audience’s demographic, the Permittee shall consider delivering its selected messages in language(s) other than English, as appropriate for the priority audience. a. Each Permittee shall implement an education and outreach program. The program design shall be based on local or regional (or both) water quality information and priority audience characteristics to identify high priority audiences, subject areas, and/or BMPs. Based on the priority audience’s demographic, the Permittee shall consider delivering its selected messages in language(s) other than English, as appropriate to the target audience. a. All Permittees shall continue to implement a public education and outreach program designed to reach priority audiences identified in i-iii below and achieve improvements in the priority audiences’ understanding of the problem and what they can do to solve it. The program shall, at a minimum address the following, based on the land uses and priority audiences found within the community. Permittees shall provide subject area information to the priority audience on an ongoing or strategic schedule.
i. General awareness: Permittees shall build general awareness with the following audiences and subject areas: i. General awareness. To build general awareness, Permittees shall annually select at a minimum one priority audience and one subject area from either (a) or (b): i. Priority audiences: General public, including homeowners, teachers, school-age children, University/college or Trade Students and overburdened communities. Provide information about the following subject areas:
a) The importance of improving water quality and protecting beneficial uses of waters of the State.
b) The potential impacts from stormwater discharges.
c) Methods for avoiding, minimizing, reducing, and/or eliminating the adverse impacts of stormwater discharges.
d) Actions individuals can take to improve water quality, including encouraging participation in local environmental stewardship activities and programs.

WWA Phase I Draft 2024 – 2029 WWA Phase II Draft 2024 EWA Phase Draft II
S5.C.11 Public Education and Outreach S5.C.2 Public Education and Outreach S5.B.1 Public Education and Outreach
(a) Priority Audiences: General Public (including school age children, college/university or trade students and overburdened communities), and businesses (including home-based and mobile business). Subject areas:
• General impacts of stormwater on surface waters, including impacts from impervious surfaces and of the hazards associated with illicit discharges and improper disposal of waste.
• LID principles and LID BMPs. (a) Priority audiences: General public (including overburdened communities, school age children, college/university, or trade students or businesses (including home-based, or mobile businesses). Subject areas: • General impacts of stormwater on surface waters, including impacts from impervious surfaces. or
• Low impact development (LID) principles and LID BMPs. ii. Priority audiences: Businesses. Provide information, appropriate to the type of business, about:
a) Preventing illicit discharges, including what constitutes illicit discharges (e.g., Source Control BMPs to prevent illicit discharges).
b) The impacts of illicit discharges.
c) Promoting the proper management and disposal of waste.
d) Management of dumpsters and washwater.
e) The use and storage of automotive chemicals, hazardous cleaning supplies, carwash soaps, and other hazardous materials.
(b) Priority audiences: Engineers, contractors, developers, property owners/managers and land use planners. Subject areas: Technical standards for stormwater site and erosion control plans.
• LID principles and LID BMPs.
• Stormwater treatment and flow control BMPs/facilities.
Source control BMPs for building materials to reduce pollution to stormwater, including but not limited to stormwater pollution from PCB‐containing materials (b) Priority audiences: Engineers, contractors, developers, property owners/managers or land use planners. Subject areas:
• Technical standards for stormwater site and erosion control plans.
• LID principles and LID BMPs.
• Stormwater treatment and flow control BMPs/facilities or
Source control BMPs for building materials to reduce pollution to stormwater, including but not limited to stormwater pollution from PCB‐containing materials. i. Priority audiences: Engineers, construction contractors, developers, property owners/managers, development review staff, land use planners. Provide information about:
a) Technical standards, development of SW site plans, TESC plans
b) Infiltration and underground injection control criteria.
c) Low Impact Development (LID).
d) Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) for reducing adverse impacts from stormwater runoff from development sites.
e) Municipal stormwater code requirements.
(f) Source control BMPs for building materials to reduce pollution to stormwater including, but not limited to, stormwater pollution from PCB‐containing materials.
(c) Permittees shall provide subject area information to the priority audience on an ongoing or strategic schedule. (c) Permittees shall provide subject area information to the priority audience on an ongoing or strategic schedule.
ii. Behavior change: To effect behavior change, Permittees shall select, at a minimum, one priority audience and one BMP: ii. Behavior change. To affect behavior change, Permittees shall select, at a minimum, one priority audience and one BMP.
(a) Priority audiences: Residents, landscapers, and property
managers/owners, school-age children, college/university or trade students and businesses (including home-based and mobile businesses). BMPs include:
• Use and storage of automotive chemicals, hazardous cleaning supplies, carwash soaps, and other hazardous materials. • Prevention of illicit discharges.
• Yard care techniques protective of water quality.
• Use/storage of pesticides & fertilizers & other household chemicals.
• Carpet cleaning.
• Repair/maintenance BMPs for vehicles, equipment, home buildings.
• Pet waste management and disposal.
• LID principles and LID BMPs.
• Stormwater facility maintenance, including LID facilities
• Dumpster and trash compactor maintenance.
• Litter and debris prevention.
• (Audience specific) Source Control BMPs, including PCB’s in building materials.
• (Audience specific) Locally important, SW-related subject area. (a) Priority Audiences: Residents, landscapers, property managers/owners, developers, school age children, college/university or trade students or businesses (including home-based or mobile businesses). BMPs include:
• Use/storage of: pesticides, fertilizers, other household chemicals.
• Use/storage of: automotive chemicals, hazardous cleaning supplies, carwash soaps, and/or other hazardous materials.
• Prevention of illicit discharges.
• Yard care techniques protective of water quality.
• Carpet cleaning.
• Repair/maintenance BMPs: vehicles, equipment, home/buildings.
• Pet waste management and disposal.
• LID Principles and LID BMPs.
• Stormwater facility maintenance, including LID facilities.
• Dumpster and trash compactor maintenance.
• Litter and debris prevention.
• Sediment and erosion control.
• (Audience specific) Source control BMPs (refer to S5.C.8). or
• (Audience specific) Locally-important, municipal SW-related subject area.

WWA Phase I Draft 2024 – 2029 WWA Phase II Draft 2024 – 2029 EWA Phase ll Draft 2024 – 2029
S5.C.11 Public Education and Outreach S5.C.2 Public Education and Outreach S5.B.1 Public Education and Outreach
iii. No later than July 1, 2025, each Permittee shall evaluate the effectiveness of the ongoing behavior change program (required under S5.C.11.a.ii of the 2019 Permit). Permittees shall document lessons learned and recommendations for which option to select from S5.C.11.a.iv. Permittees that select option S5.C.11.a.iv.c, below, may forgo this evaluation if it will not add value to the overall behavior change program. (b) No later than July 1, 2025, each Permittee shall evaluate the effectiveness of an ongoing behavior change campaign (required under S5.C.1.a.ii and S5.C.1.c of the 2019 Permit). Permittees shall document lessons learned and recommendations for which option to select from S5.C.2.a.ii.(c).
Permittees that select option S5.C.2.a.ii.(c)3, below, may forgo this evaluation if it will not add value to the overall behavior change program.
iv. Based on the recommendation from S5.C.11.a.iii, by July 1, 2026, each Permittee shall follow social marketing practices and methods, and develop a campaign that is tailored to the community, including the development of a program evaluation plan. Each Permittee shall: (c) Based on the recommendation from S5.C.2.a.ii.(b), by July 1, 2026, each Permittee shall follow social marketing practices and methods, and develop a campaign that is tailored to the community, including development of a program evaluation plan. Each Permittee shall:
(a) Develop a strategy and schedule to implement the existing campaign more effectively, or 1. Develop a strategy and schedule to more effectively implement the existing campaign; or
(b) Develop a strategy and schedule to expand the existing campaign to a new priority audience or BMPs, or 2. Develop a strategy and schedule to expand the existing campaign to a new priority audience or BMPs; or
( c) Develop a strategy and schedule for a new priority audience and BMP behavior change campaign. 3. Develop a strategy and schedule for a new priority audience and BMP behavior change campaign.
v. No later than September 1, 2026, begin to implement the strategy developed in S5.C.11.a.iv. (d) No later than September 1, 2026, begin to implement the strategy developed in S5.C.2.a.ii.(c)
vi. No later than March 31, 2029, evaluate and report on: (e) No later than March 31, 2029, evaluate and submit a report on:
(a) The changes in understanding and adoption of targeted behaviors resulting from the implementation of the strategy; and 1. The changes in understanding and adoption of targeted behaviors resulting from the implementation of the strategy; and
2. Any planned or recommended changes to the campaign to be more effective; describe the strategies and process to achieve the results. b. Each Permittee shall measure the understanding and adoption of the priority behaviors for at least one target audience in at least one subject area. No later than December 31, 2026, Permittees shall use the resulting measurements to direct ongoing education and outreach resources most effectively, as well as to evaluate changes in adoption of the targeted behaviors. Document program evaluation process and how resources will direct effective methods and implementation of the ongoing education and outreach program.
c. No later than January 1 2027, each permittee shall begin to provide and/or advertise stewardship opportunities to encourage residents or businesses to participate in activities or events planned and organized within the community such as: stream teams, storm drain marking, volunteer monitoring, and riparian plantings. Permittees may partner and/or promote stewardship opportunities created or organized by existing organizations (including non-permittees).
(b) Any changes to the campaign to be more effective; describe the strategies and process to achieve the results.
vii. Permittees shall use results of the evaluation to continue to direct effective methods for implementation of the ongoing behavior change program. (f) Permittees shall use results of the evaluation to continue to direct effective methods and implementation of the ongoing behavior change program.
b. Each Permittee shall partner and promote (or both) stewardship opportunities to encourage residents or businesses to participate in activities or events planned and organized within the community, such as: stream teams, storm drain marking, volunteer monitoring and riparian plantings .Permittees may partner or promote (or both) stewardship opportunities created or organized by existing organizations (including non- permittees). iii. Stewardship. Each Permittee shall partner and promote stewardship opportunities to encourage residents to participate in activities or events planned and organized within the community, such as: stream teams, storm drain marking, volunteer monitoring, and riparian plantings. Permittees may partner or promote (or both) stewardship opportunities created or organized by existing organizations (including non‐permittees).1
The minimum performance measures are: i. Annually, Permittees shall document specific public involvement opportunities provided to overburdened communities. ii. No later than December 31, 2026, document methods used to identify overburdened communities.
b. Each Permittee shall post on their website their SWMP plan and the Annual Report, required under S9.A, no later that May 31 each year. All other submittals shall be available to the public upon request.

Taco Tent Q&A

Q&A for “Taco Tents – An Emerging Stormwater Issue”
Presentation at the Aug. 19, 2025, BIG Meeting

Questions and Answers:
Q-1: When you first became aware of this, how did you approach the operators since they work late at night? Did you just have staff stay late or use flex time?
A-1: These operations start around 6 PM and close between 12:00 and 2:00 PM. The required staff and the subconsultant, who provided communication services in Spanish, worked after ours to visit these operations. Staff use flextime for after-hours site visits. The working hours are definitely a challenge because the tents are set up between 6 and 7 pm and work until midnight or 2 am. We worked with our on-call consultant to visit these sites during those working hours.
Q-1b: How did you learn about these businesses?
A-1b: The call came into the Code Enforcement Team that grease was observed around a catch basin. Upon inspection, it was determined that a cleanup was required because we saw food waste and grease. Before we heard about the grease and trash in the catch basins, we heard about some public health issues and that is how we learned what these sites were. We also saw them on the streets ourselves after work as regular citizens. That was when we realized we needed to be agile and have staff out after hours. The work fell primarily to the code enforcement team.
Q-2: Have you thought about putting anything on social media encouraging people to report issues? How do you not make it seem like you are “hunting these businesses down?”
A-2: We know their locations and are creating strategies to work with these businesses to bring them into compliance. For the City of Shoreline, it is a source control and IDDE issue so we are starting with education and outreach first. We want these businesses operating in compliance. We are not putting this on social media, we are just keeping public health aware of the issues.
King County Public Health (KCPH) is putting out information on social media about what types of restaurants, businesses, food trucks and food tents to eat at. KCPH is focusing on informing the public that the public health safety signs posted at a business means this business is safe to eat at. We are focusing on education for the public and for these businesses.
Discussion: City of Bothell discussed Bothell’s experience working with these businesses, a staff member went out and met them. Most operators speak only Spanish. They come from LA where there is a lot of competition to here where there is less and they can make better money. One person (not known) owns all the equipment these taco tents use and that person hires people to work at locations s/he determines will make money. Once they locate a spot, they continue to use that location. When Bothell shuts one down, another operator moves in and operates and doesn’t know about the other operator being shut down.
Bothell recommends shutting them down before they get a long line of patrons. The biggest issue is what is dumped in the storm drain. At the end of the night, the tent operators dump the rice and fruit juice drink they did not sell. If the taco tent is on private property, it is possible to shut them down but it needs a “no trespass order” from the property owner after which code compliance can shut them down. In the right of way, it is more difficult because the police department does not want to engage with them.
Shoreline sees fruit drinks dumped as well. Providing a grease container for them would create the idea that what they are doing is legitimate, especially as it relates to public health issues and could open the city to liability if people get sick.
One idea was to take photos of license plates to figure out who owns the equipment vans but that is a grey area legally; it’s not a good use of police resources and if a law is not violated, it is not a correct use of police resources. Also, with the ICE raids, there is sensitivity around enforcing on this community and making them feel unwelcome.
Summary:
There is community demand for these vendors. They start set ups around 6:00 pm in locations around the city with high foot traffic. The operators typically speak Spanish, they do not own the equipment they use, the equipment is owned by one person who rents it to the operators. At the end of the night, the equipment is put away, the operators wash down the spaces where they cook to clean any stains. This water, along with the fruit and rice drink they did not sell, goes into the storm drains.
Shutting down these businesses is difficult; they are not breaking any laws overtly. The main concerns are public health issues related to food handling. Their washdown and disposal methods are not legal. This is difficult to enforce in the right-of-way. Police are reluctant to engage with this group because of ICE raids and not wanting to create additional hostility in the community.
Outreach and education for IDDE compliance needs to be in Spanish and needs to focus on solutions for their waste material. Also, there needs to be food handling requirements communicated to them to prevent food borne illness.

Yakima County Car Wash Pollution Prevention (Spanish)

Cambiando la forma de lavar su coche puede ayudar a proteger nuestro medioambiente natural.
El lavado de coches a fuera puede resultar en contaminantes dañinos del jabón y los limpiadores que ingresan al sistema de desagüe pluvial. Nuestro sistema de desague fluye directamente a habitats naturales criticos.
Estos polluntants degradan la calidad del agua de nuestros arroyos y ponen en peligro la vida silvestre que vive en o cerca de los arroyos.