Tallahassee, Fla. – Tallahassee area residents may have seen humorous TV ads and billboards in recent months that promoted picking up dog waste and properly using fertilizer.  The ads, part of the 2009 TAPP – or “Think About Personal Pollution” – campaign were designed to promote education about Tallahassee’s water quality and how to protect it.  The City of Tallahassee today announced the results of a survey that shows the campaign had an enormous impact on public awareness and behavior.

Waterways throughout the City’s jurisdiction are under federal mandate to reach applied water quality standards. Options for addressing nonpoint source (NPS) pollution, also known as personal pollution, are limited and expensive.  As a result, the City has chosen to educate residents through the TAPP program in an attempt to reduce such pollution at its source.


“Just as each of us relies on water every day, each of us also contributes to water pollution daily, often without realizing it,” said Nancy Miller, TAPP project coordinator. “The ongoing TAPP initiative is, and has always been, to help our residents understand personal pollution sources and encourage preventive solutions.”


The 2009 survey results reveal that the TAPP campaign was successful in educating Tallahassee residents on the damaging effects of NPS water pollution and what individuals can do to prevent personal pollution.  The results show that 90 percent of those surveyed recognized that personal habits contribute to water pollution, 30 percent of dog owners have begun to pick up their pet waste and that residents’ overall use of fertilizer decreased by 14 percent.


The TAPP campaign is funded in part by a Section 319 Nonpoint Source Management Program Implementation grant to the City of Tallahassee from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through an agreement with the Nonpoint Source Management Section of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.  In addition, an array of local advertising, public relations and research consultants, as well as media partners, provided extensive free and in-kind matching services, TV airtime and billboard space.  Through this public-private partnership, the City of Tallahassee was successful in educating residents of their personal effects on water quality, according to the survey.


“There’s no question that utilizing educational outreach aimed toward achieving prevention is significantly less expensive than remediation, or structural solutions, to clean up our waterways to meet federal standards,” said Miller.