Columbia official has become, tee hee, the face of pet waste clean-up campaign

Mary Pat Baldauf, who works on environmental issues for the city of Columbia, hasn’t yet been called, “the Poop Lady,” but she gets ribbing from her friends because of a billboard that features her image.

A photograph of Baldauf, the city’s sustainability facilitator, appears on one of three billboards that remind Columbians to “Trash the poop!” their pets leave behind.

Baldauf also appears in YouTube videos that suggest pet owners not leave their dogs’ waste where people can step on it. Even worse for the environment, dogs’ messes can wash into city stormwater pipes and further pollute creeks and rivers.

“My friends like to tease me about it,” Baldauf said Friday of the billboard that appeared in recent weeks as part of this spring’s pet clean-up campaign. She gets Facebook messages that say, “ ‘Wait a minute! Your face is on a billboard with dog poop,’ ” Baldauf said.

A video version of the dog waste public service announcement showed Baldauf stepping on “stunt poop” made of modeling clay rolled in grass for texture.

The billboards, videos and social media campaigns are being recycled — a word Baldauf loves — from the same ads that ran during the summer of 2011, said Victoria Kramer, Columbia’s communications manager for the department of utilities and engineering. Kramer and Baldauf work together on stormwater programs.

Lexington County and Keep the Midlands Beautiful are part of the same program. Because Keep the Midlands Beautiful is a nonprofit organization, the three billboards are cheaper: $2,700 for a three-month campaign, Kramer said. But the city does not determine in which part of town the billboards are displayed.

Baldauf said she has been involved in environmental issues since she was 4, when her mother took her to help clean up an alley. Her interest in the environment just happened to turn into a career, she said.

She got involved in litter clean-ups. “I just loved the recycling part of it; how you can reuse things,” Baldauf said. “There’s a lot of chemistry involved.” She didn’t do well in chemistry class in college, she said.

Baldauf’s enthusiasm took her to Keep the Midlands Beautiful, where she was director for 10 years beginning in the late 1990s. She became Lexington County’s recycling director for about 18 months until the capital city hired her in 2008, Baldauf said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires communities to monitor and improve pollution in stormwater as part of its environmental permits, Kramer said. Pet waste — along with sewer spills and misuse of stormwater drains — contributes to pollution. The city must address all of them through public information campaigns that encourage residents to be responsible, she said.

Kramer said Baldauf became a face of the city’s campaign because, “She’s very approachable.”

“Victoria’s made me a star!” Baldauf joked.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Columbia official has become, tee hee, the face of pet waste clean-up campaign."