Texas Patent of the Month – November 2022
Before we began paving streets and building underground infrastructure, stormwater would simply seep back into the soil and return to the water table. Nowadays, the stormwater builds on streets and sidewalks, collecting any pollutants that may have gathered there before returning to the ground, river, or lakes. In addition, the water is directed to specific runoff sites which can cause large volumes of water to build up in small areas which might cause flooding and erosion. As a result, properly treating and directing stormwater is crucial. Bio Clean Environmental Services, Inc. has designed a new treatment system which is easy to maintain and simple to integrate with existing urban infrastructure.
Their newly patented design is a two-sided horizontal flow bioretention stormwater system focused on volume control and a series of filtration processes. The structure itself has impermeable outer walls with spaced permeable cages filled with biofiltration media. Water flows in through a curbside inlet into a pre-treatment chamber which first filters out trash. The biofiltration media includes mulches and vegetation which act as a first round of filtration. As the water progresses through the system into a horizontal retention basin, it passes over a rock underdrain cell which controls the water flow as it exits through outlets.
The use of biofiltration media and the simple horizontal bioretention system makes the treatment process easy to integrate with existing infrastructure and reduces the maintenance and upkeep. In addition, it allows for ease of adjustments to keep up with ever-changing stormwater regulations.
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