It might not seem like all that big a deal, but a plan by the Nansemond River Preservation Alliance to begin attaching medallions to stormwater drains throughout Suffolk is a great project for the organization to take on as its first public work since it was founded last year.

The medallions will remind people that anything that goes into the stormwater drains winds up in the river. It’s surprising how many people think that the drains on the sides of the roads and in gutters and ditches around the city somehow feed into the city’s wastewater treatment facilities, where someone dutifully cleans all the garbage and oil and chemicals out of the water before returning it into the cycle.

In reality, whenever it rains, everything that is in many of the city’s streets gets washed into the drains and, ultimately, right into the Nansemond River. Things that get thrown into or poured in the drains make their way to the river all that much more quickly.

So it’s fitting and helpful that the NRPA’s first public activity will be one ultimately designed to educate the folks who live in the Nansemond River’s watershed. Cleaning up the river, especially around downtown Suffolk, where the levels of dangerous bacteria and other pollutants are particularly bad and have made the river unfit for swimming, is a priority for the organization. Since the downtown area has most of the city’s stormwater drains and its most concentrated areas of asphalt and concrete, it stands to reason that most of the pollution-related drainage problems would be located there, and it makes sense that the NRPA would start there to try to accomplish its goals.

The new medallions are, in fact, just a small step toward educating folks in Suffolk about the various things that threaten the health and future of the Nansemond River. But they will serve as visual reminders for years to come that many of our actions have consequences that are not easily dismissed.