Entry Category
Program Entry – Best Environmental Protection
Name of Intervention/ Program
OC <3’s Water
Background and Situation Analysis
The County of Orange (County), Orange County Flood Control District, and the 34 cities of Orange County (Permittees) are regulated by two municipal stormwater permits, which include requirements for conducting public education and outreach focused on water quality improvement. As Principal Permittee, Orange County Public Works (OCPW) staff manage a coordinated outreach program on behalf of the Permittees under the brand name H2OC, which houses a range of public education activities and resources. This award submission is on behalf of the countywide public education efforts through the H2OC program. Research in the social sciences has shown that highlighting positive social norms is more effective at changing behavior than emphasizing wrongdoing. Additionally, as Permittees increasingly turn to stormwater capture projects as a means of compliance, it’s become essential for the public to appreciate and understand stormwater as a community resource. As such, H2OC developed the OC <3’s Water campaign, which encourages personal action to protect and improve Orange County’s highly valued water resources. The campaign was developed for H2OC in partnership with the Permittees, and with campaign elements available for the Permittees to utilize in their jurisdictions.
Priority Audiences(s)
H2OC provides resources to residents and businesses in Orange County to prevent water pollution and encourages personal action by working with members of each watershed community to prevent polluted runoff from entering our waterways.
Behavioral Objectives
The purpose of the campaign is to reframe how residents perceive stormwater, from a source of pollution to a valued community resource, while promoting everyday behaviors that protect water quality. The campaign focuses on many stormwater protective behaviors, including cleaning up debris, preventing overwatering, proper pesticide usage, picking up pet waste, smart landscaping, and sweeping instead of hosing. Grounded in key social science concepts, including positive social norms and values-based messaging, the campaign leverages residents’ strong emotional connection to local waterways to inspire sustainable behavior change. Rather than emphasizing pollution and penalties, the campaign focuses on pride, stewardship, and appreciation for Orange County’s beaches, creeks, and rivers.
Description of Strategy/Intervention
Since January 2022, our positively framed OC <3’s Water campaign has taken Orange County by storm, emphasizing core values in our communities: keeping our water resources clean and beautiful, and spending time in and around our creeks, rivers, and ocean. The campaign consists of four key components: (1) an animated public service announcement (PSA); (2) a social media reel series showcasing top spots to enjoy OC’s water resources; (3) a weekly mindfulness social media video story series; and, (4) a live-action PSA. These key components work in harmony with an overarching brand theme of love for our local waters. As a data-driven program, H2OC relies heavily on social science findings in the development of outreach materials. The research is clear: positive messaging is more effective than negative messaging at changing behaviors. The primary goal of the OC <3’s Water campaign is to connect residents’ pride in our water resources with positively framed behaviors that prevent pollution. OC residents generally care deeply about their waterways; and by tapping into this social norm, H₂OC is able to create an environment where tangible behavior change is achievable and sustainable. In our 2022 public opinion survey, residents were asked to rate how much the pollution of Orange County beaches, lakes, creeks, and ocean would affect them and their family using a scale from 0, not at all, to 10, a great deal. Respondents reported a high concern for pollution (average score of 8.9). Campaign messaging was tailored to deepen their understanding of the actions they can take to show their love and help maintain the health of local waterways. The campaign also works to leverage Orange County residents’ love of our local water resources and extend that to an appreciation for stormwater as a community resource, key to establishing public support for stormwater capture projects. Relatedly, the campaign enabled H2OC to easily integrate with the statewide Rain Ready California initiative developed by the California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA). Rain Ready California is also shifting from negative phrasings (polluted water) to positive (protect and collect), to inspire Californians to view stormwater as a resource and extend their love for our water in all its forms. Our constructive campaign approach was years ahead of this shift, further demonstrating innovation in research-driven communications. As a countywide program, H2OC is cost-effective by centralizing the development of campaign materials. When the program produces high-quality, research-informed messaging, it eliminates the need for each Permittee to independently invest in development. This saves both time and resources. Campaign materials are then provided to Permittees in full to boost beyond the program’s initial high-level media buys. The Permittees can leverage their existing communication channels and community relationships to further the campaign’s reach. This shared approach maximizes efficiency, ensures message consistency across the county, and significantly extends the campaign’s impact without duplicating costs.
Implementation
The OC <3’s Water campaign includes an animated PSA, social media reel series showcasing top spots to enjoy water resources, a weekly mindfulness social media video story series, and a live action PSA. Our animated PSA informs residents that, unlike sanitary sewers, the storm drain system is untreated. It highlights the most common pollutants and underscores the importance of preventing them from reaching the storm drain system and, ultimately, our waterways. It ends with the phrase, “OC <3 Water,” before dissolving into the H2OC logo. Several Permittees, including the cities of Tustin, Laguna Hills, and Costa Mesa, have run the PSA on public broadcast channels, lobby TV screens, and community events. For our social media reel series, we’ve filmed at 22 Orange County parks and beaches to date and post monthly. The reels depict aesthetically pleasing places people enjoy visiting while overlaying positive pollution-prevention messaging. For example, our most popular reel features Laguna Niguel Regional Park, and showcases its recreational features while also referencing ways to prevent pollution while visiting. We also publish a weekly social media video story series called “Midweek Mindful Moments”. These short videos feature positive pollution-prevention affirmations at scenic water resource locations to deepen our followers’ love of our water bodies and highlight beloved waterways located throughout Orange County. They often feature soothing shots of lapping waves to align comforting imagery and sounds with the encouraging mantra, “I can help protect our water resources.” Our latest effort in this campaign is a live-action PSA, completed in March 2026 and soft-launched early summer. It focuses on key residential stormwater pollution-prevention behaviors – picking up pet waste, using bait stations to control ants, sweeping instead of hosing driveways, picking up outdoor debris, preventing over irrigation, and planting native plants. As the person on screen engages in proper behavior, “Mother Nature” indicates visual approval. We use practical effects to demonstrate this by emphasizing a heart-shaped leaf, creating a smiling face flower pattern with plants, and shaping a hose into a heart. The live-action PSA also ends with a beating heart made of water before dissolving into the H2OC logo. In addition to the full 90- second PSA, we also have standalone 15-second behavior-specific shorts for use on social media and other short-form content opportunities. These core campaign elements are designed to support an overall theme that emphasizes loving and caring for our local waterways.
Evaluation Methods and Results
It is difficult to tie measurable results to a broad-based awareness campaign; separate behavior-focused campaigns have been developed through H2OC for this purpose (e.g., proper pesticide use, trash campaigns). However, coupled with other programmatic efforts, the OC <3’s Water campaign is bringing love of waterways to the forefront. In Heal the Bay’s Annual Beach Report Card, an independent analysis of water bodies throughout the state, Orange County beaches have been among the top-performing in California during both wet and dry weather since 2022. The program is proud of the fact that in the two most recent Annual Beach Report Cards, Orange County has had the most Honor Roll beaches of any county in the state. Orange County residents love their waterways, and the care that stems from that love – reinforced through the OC <3’s Water campaign – contributes to the exceptional water quality we have here in Orange County. This overarching campaign lays the groundwork for residents to trust our brand and engage with more specific pollution prevention best management practices (BMPs) down the line. Since the OC <3’s Water campaign was initiated in January 2022, it has generated the following metrics, not including individual Permittee efforts: -An increase in Instagram followers from 91 to 4,924; -399,360 impressions generated by reels; -11,000 impressions generated by The Midweek Mindful Moment Instagram story series; and -36,363 impressions generated by targeted ad buys of the animated PSA through Hulu. The new live-action PSA is beginning a large-scale media buy in July 2026 that will continue through June 2027 and garner millions of impressions.
Entry Number: 06