Question: What is a Stormwater Treatment Train?
Answer: A Stormwater Treatment Train is a series of stormwater procedures and products that maximize the removal of pollutants.
Why Should You Use a Stormwater Treatment Train?
Unfortunately, pollutants are released practically everywhere in and around your facility. Even if you’re doing your best to minimize the amount of material that escapes your building, there is a good chance the structure and normal outdoor activities are contributing pollution to the environment and potentially causing you to exceed your stormwater permit limits.
This probably sounds extreme, but it all makes sense if we look at the journey a raindrop might take at your facility.
How Stormwater Pollutants Get into Rain
- As rain falls onto the roof of your building, it picks up contaminants — debris, grease and potentially heavy metals such as zinc, aluminum or iron.
- Stormwater runoff carries that pollution into the downspout where it’s discharged onto another impervious surface, let’s say near your waste collection area.
- That runoff, which is already carrying nasty pollution, then travels through your waste collection area and picks up additional trash, grease and metals.
- Next, it hits your parking lot — the prime spot in most facilities where vehicles deposit all types of pollution including oil, sediment, zinc (from tires) and copper (from brake pads).
- Finally, the water runs into a storm drain which leads to your local water bodies, streams, rivers and wetlands. Ultimately, this can damage the environment and result in hefty fines.
What can you do to filter this pollution out of your facility’s stormwater?
As you may know, using a drain filter is a great way to clean your runoff. However, if that filter is your only line of defense, you may be asking it to do too much. This will not only make storm drain filters less efficient and reduce the lifespan, but it will also cost you money in replacement filters and labor.
How to Build Your Stormwater Treatment Train
A better way to stop these pollutants throughout the runoff’s pathway is to create a Stormwater Treatment Train.
Before & Around the Drain
Stormwater Filter Socks and Heavy Metal Filter Socks are versatile, flexible options for areas such as roof drains, the bottom of a downspout, a perimeter for waste collection areas or anywhere traffic isn’t a concern. They work around your storm drains to help remove sediment, trash, oils, sheens and heavy metals too!
In the Drain
Treat everything that flows through grates with a Drain Insert. And, check out this Storm Drain Skimmer Squid, whose long tentacles search the water for sheens and other oil-based liquids.
Additional Storm Drain Protection
Add an extra layer of protection with an Oil-Only Absorbent Boom that’s ready to grab any additional oils or sheens that make it through your stormwater drainage system and through the outfall pipe. These Booms can be placed directly in the water to confine and absorb oils.
Need help implementing a treatment train system? Leave a comment and we’ll help find solutions that can be deployed throughout your facility. For more info, check out our full selection of Stormwater Filtration products!
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