Saturday scenes and scenery: down the drain

Here's public education at work. Generations raised on Sesame Street may be surprised that we had to be warned not to pour inconvenient liquids into the wastewater system. But it took some effort for cities to get the message across. I remember a time in the 1970s when many of us thought little about dumping used motor oil into these grates. And we certainly know that industrial polluters will still dump if they can make a buck from it.

Hence a public education campaign. Somebody must have got a grant for signs?? The sign above is from San Francisco.


This rather nice emblem is from Oakland.


And this stencil shows the same motif in Los Angeles.

If we pour our waste into the ocean nowadays, at least we know we're doing something society condemns.