2018 Environmental Communications Awards Competition Winner

Grand Prize

GWRS Bottled Water Campaign

Entrants: Orange County Water District and Orange County Sanitation District
Person in Charge: Eleanor Torres, Director of Public Affairs
Media Contact: Diane Pinnick

Advanced Purified Bottled Water Campaign Stimulates Public Acceptance of Water Reuse

A safe, reliable water supply touches all of our lives. The Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) is the world's largest advanced water purification project for potable reuse and its product water exceeds federal drinking water standards. A collaboration between the Orange County Water District (OCWD) and the Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD), it has been online since 2008. It supplements Orange County's (CA) groundwater, providing 100 million gallons a day.

The biggest detriment to building similar projects is the perceived "yuck" factor. For the GWRS, OCWD and OCSD created a successful communication campaign that included having tour guests drink product water. Tour survey results, even today, show that the number of guests who strongly support advanced purified wastewater as part of their drinking water supply nearly double (34.14% to 64.40%) after the tour and tasting.

It stood to reason that putting recycled water in consumers' hands to test for themselves, coupled with verbal and/or print information, would help to overcome "toilet-to-tap" misconceptions and gain support of water reuse for future infrastructure and program investments on the public's behalf.

Campaign Strategy

In 2016, OCWD, OCSD and WateReuse California led efforts to pass AB 2022, which now allows the bottling of advanced purified water for educational purposes. OCWD and OCSD became the first to bottle such water in the Western Hemisphere. In 2017, OCWD and OCSD began a California "bottled water tour" to educate general and targeted publics about the safety, quality and taste of reused water in efforts to help similar reuse projects gain community support and ultimately help California be water-secure during droughts. It started in March 2017 with pre-kick-off industry and legislative events and culminated in a rousing Winter Fest celebration of the GWRS 10th anniversary and setting a Guinness World Record for the most wastewater recycled to drinking water in 24 hours on Feb. 16, 2018.

Staff and board members would go out to established events to reach California masses - general public, students, water industry personnel, business and civic leaders, and legislators. Extra effort was placed on targeting Millennials (ages 18-34), the largest influential and technologically literate generation group.

Additionally, engaging media to cover the campaign launch, Guinness World Records attempt and Winter Fest celebration, and reaching out to both reporters and social media influencers to take the #GetOverIt! water taste challenge would go a long way in gaining support.

Goals and Objectives

Convey advanced purified water as the water future
Celebrate and reinforce technological progress using GWRS as example
Reinforce OCWD and OCSD leadership roles in water reuse
Support other agencies' water reuse projects/events
Continue/increase public acceptance of water reuse
Engage new audiences

Messages About Advanced Purified Water

It is safe
It tastes good
It is a new source of water (necessary during droughts)
It is environmentally friendly (less energy than imported or desalinated water; diverts billions of gallons of wastewater from the ocean)
It costs less than imported or desalinated
It is reliable

Campaign Tools

Brochures
Direct Mail Campaign
Joint Effort with Agency/Firm
Media Kits
Presentations
PR Campaigns
Public Surveys
Public Exhibition
Special Events
Videos
Website
Social Networking
Other-Op-eds

Results

Kick-off

A PRNewswire release was picked up on 223 news and information websites, with potential views of 88 million. It has been viewed more than 4,000 times via the PRNewswire channels that can be tracked and includes web crawler hits (equating to a strong search engine result because of the release's keywords) and it generated 23 news media views. Four times as many or more actual views occur (but simply can't be tracked through PRNewswire's electronic channels).

All attending news media broadcast one or more stories on Southern California television news stations and at least one station "syndicated" its video and story via the CNN network to TV news stations across the country. KNX broadcast its story multiple times during the day. Combined with the Southern California Newspaper Group of newspapers, total potential audience impressions exceeded 150 million. City News Service, a wire news service that covers Southern California, and several other news sites published stories as well.

Guinness World Record/Winter Fest

Combined news coverage for the World Record and Winter Fest reached more than 350 million potential readers, listeners and viewers.

The PRNewswire release had the same reach as mentioned above. Placement included Yahoo, Marketplace and TheStreet.com. The release generated 159 media views on the PRNewswire website as well as more than 600 views from the general public. Local TV news stations provided onsite reports and NPR and CBS This Morning took audio and footage to use at a later date. Other media placements, such as with industry trades (i.e., Waste Today Magazine), continued for the next few weeks.

Additional Results

At every event, bottles of GWRS water were given out and people - most of them new to advanced purified water - were engaged. A total of 13,000 bottles were given out and nearly 17,000 people were engaged.
More than 80 reporters and social media influencers received press kits with water and a written request to take the #GetOverIt! taste challenge and post results. Nearly 20 took the challenge and posted favorable messages about recycled water to thousands of their followers. More than 100,000 people were reached on social media.
21,000 WEFTEC 2017 attendees cheered as WEF's President drank GWRS bottled water onstage.
The TEDx conference was viewed by 5,250 people.
4, 569 attended onsite tour program

Conclusion

The "bottled water tour" drew peoples' attention to state and local water needs and provided knowledge about water reuse as a viable new source. The tour provided palatable and useful information to spur the acceptance of water reuse projects to benefit current and future generations. The large number (11) of legislators who attended or sent resolutions for the GWRS anniversary is significant in showing support for water reuse in California.

GWRS Bottled Water Campaign Tools

GWRS Brochures Translated From English into 4 Languages: Chinese, Spanish, Korean, and Vietnamese

GWRS California Bottled Water Campaign Launch Direct Mail Campaign & Media Kit

Public Exhibition: People Invited to Visit Interactive H2O Learning Center at OCWD

Joint Effort with Agency or Firm - Several Tour Stops were Water Industry Events. We were also involved with WateReuse in efforts to pass Assembly Bill No. 2022: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB2022
Presentation Example: TEDx Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCwGtWZmDc8

Public Relations - Media Coverage Samples

Kick-Off Coverage

On-Air Water Tasting and GWRS Coverage: From toilet to tap: Would you drink recycled wastewater?, 89.3 KPCC-FM, June 21
Press Event Print Coverage: "Would you drink purified toilet water? Hollywood residents will get the chance Wednesday, Los Angeles Daily News, Press-Telegram & San Gabriel Valley Tribune, June 21
Press Event Television Coverage: OC's 'toilet to tap' drinking water a tough sell even on a hot day, ABC 7, June 22
Press Event Television Coverage: Sanitation Workers Hand Out 'Toilet to Tap' Water, NBC 4, June 21
Press Event Television Coverage: From Toilet To Tap: Bottles Of Purified Recycled Wastewater Handed Out In Hollywood, CBS 2 and KCAL 9, June 21
Press Event Print Coverage: Hollywood residents get the chance to drink purified toilet water from Orange County, The Orange County Register, June 21
Press Event Print Coverage: Toilet to tap? Some in drought-prone California say it's time, The Mercury News, July 5
Press Event Print Coverage: Toilet to tap? Some in drought-prone California say it's time, The Vallejo Times-Herald, July 5
Press Event Online Coverage: Magic in a Bottle: Orange County Launches Recycled Water Giveaway, News Deeply, July 3
Press Event Online Coverage: Orange County Wants You To Know It's Perfectly OK to Drink Recycled Toilet Water, LAist, June 23
Press Event Online Coverage, Ewww! Hollywood Boulevard tourists get recycled water from toilets to beat the heat, mynewsLA.com, June 21

World Record & Winter Fest Coverage

Pre Guinness World Records Online Coverage: OC Agencies to Attempt World Record for Most Wastewater Recycled to Drinking Water In 24 Hours, PR Newswire, Feb. 8, 2016
Pre Guinness World Records TV Coverage: OC Aims to Break World Record for Water Recycling, NBC4, Feb. 16, 2018
Post Guinness World Records Print Coverage: Around Town: O.C. agencies set world record for wastewater recycled in 24 hours, Los Angeles Times/Daily Pilot, Feb. 16, 2018
Post Guinness World Records Online Coverage: OC Agencies Set Guinness World Records™ Title For Most Wastewater Recycled Into Drinking Water in 24 Hours, PR Newswire, Feb. 16, 2018
Post Guinness World Records Print Coverage: From waste to taste: Orange County sets Guinness record for recycled water, The Orange County Register, Feb. 18, 2018
Post Guinness World Records Radio Coverage: California Aims To Get Past The Yuck Factor Of Recycled Wastewater, NPR Southern California Radio, Feb. 20, 2018

Special Events Tour

Set Guinness World Record for most wastewater recycled to drinking water & Winter Fest Celebration of GWRS 10th Anniversary on February 16, 2018.

3/20/17 - WateReuse in San Diego
4/18/17 - Legislative Event in Sacramento
4/22/17 - Earth Day at Disneyland
4/29/17 - CoastAlong at UCLA
6/06/17 - KPCC's "Seeing Green" in Pasadena
6/21/17 - Media Kick-off in Hollywood
6/24/17 - OC Food, Wine and Music Festival at Dana Point
7/20/17 - Soquel Creek Water District Community Open House in Santa Cruz
9/17/17 - National Weather Association Conference in Garden Grove
9/21/17 - TEDx Bakersfield
9/26/17 – Casa Agria Brewing Competition in Oxnard
9/30/17 - KPCC Open House in Pasadena
10/2/17 - The Water Environment Federation's Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) in Chicago, Illinois
10/11/17 - 7th Annual Central Coast Sustainability Summit at the University of California, Santa Barbara
10/14/17 - Waterfest, Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District in Irwindale
10/23/17 - Groundwater Federation National Conference in Boise, Idaho
11/3/17 - World Water-Tech North America Summit in Toronto, Canada
11/18/17 - UCLA vs. USC Football Game at the Los Angeles Coliseum