City to Replace Loosened Signs Near Storm Drains

Close encounters of the terrestrial kind are sending part of an antipollution campaign down the drain in Los Angeles.

Officials are prying up 1,150 customized signs glued to curbs around the city that urge people not to dump trash into storm drains that empty into the ocean.

The reason: Buses pulling close to the curb for passengers are crushing the tile-like signs, knocking ceramic chunks into the very drains they’re designed to protect.

It’s the second setback for a $720,000 effort to prevent foam cups, cigarette butts, used motor oil and other discards from washing through 100,000 urban street drains into Santa Monica Bay and Long Beach Harbor.

Earlier “no dumping” reminders stenciled onto sidewalks above drain openings were worn away by pedestrians or obliterated by weather, dirt and discarded chewing gum.

City officials say they’ll try tougher plastic curb tiles next. And if that doesn’t work, they will try to attach signs to sidewalks with a special adhesive.

“It’s life in the big city,” shrugged Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay--an environmental group whose lawsuit against the city eight years ago triggered the sign campaign. “Thank God they stopped it before wasting a lot of taxpayer money. You can imagine them doing all of their drains before realizing it didn’t work.”

Not that plenty of taxpayer money hasn’t already been spent.

The city has so far paid $320,000 for the storm drain markers--including the cost of focus groups that helped pick the signs’ fish-skeleton logo. There was even debate over the wording, “No Dumping--This Drains to Ocean.” A proposal to include the words “No Tire Basura” (don’t throw trash) was scrapped after Latino groups complained that Spanish-speaking people were unfairly being singled out.

The logos made their first appearance in the fall of 1993 on spray-painted signs stenciled onto sidewalks above street drain openings. But many of them were blurry and difficult to read. And most started fading after about six months.

Looking for something more lasting, officials turned last year to ceramic tiles, which cost about $5 each. Fearful that pedestrians might trip over them and sue the city, officials decided to glue them to the sides of curbs rather than place them on sidewalks.

Officials soon noticed that bus tires were bumping against them and breaking them, said Chuck Ellis, spokesman for the city Department of Public Works.

Los Angeles is responsible for about 55,000 of the region’s 100,000 or so storm drains.

Ellis said the city is determined to find a durable sign for its drains. In a new test, 850 plastic tiles are being glued to curb sides and 175 stenciled signs are being cemented to sidewalks with “hot tape”--a process most commonly used to put crosswalk lines on streets, he said.

“We may have to change the design, or the color,” he added. “We’re trying to figure out how to label so it lasts the longest.”

The city has paid workers to install the test signs. But will any sign actually stop people from tossing trash into storm drains? Officials acknowledged that they don’t know--although the campaign has had at least one positive result.

Workers stenciling signs next to drains have taken it upon themselves to pluck debris from adjacent gutters, Heal the Bay storm water manager Lisa Crossley said.

“We can document keeping 180 grocery-size bags of trash out of the bay,” she said.