Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Stormwater Management at Vancouver USA

By Karen Robes Meeks

Earlier this month, the Port of Vancouver USA showcased its innovation in stormwater management, including its employee-generated Grattix and stormwater bio-filtration facilities at StormCon, an annual conference that focuses on surface water quality.

This year, the conference took place in Bellevue, Washington.

Port Environmental Manager Matt Graves spoke about the Grattix and Terminal 2 stormwater bio-filtration facility, both built in 2009 to treat high copper and zinc levels in stormwater runoff.

“Both treatment systems have been tested regularly to see what types of metals they’re collecting and how the organic, locally sourced elements that comprise these systems hold up to the metals over time,” according to the port. “Those test results show that both the Grattix and stormwater bio-filtration facility had more detectable metals in their uppermost layers, meaning they were performing exceptionally well at capturing less-dense metals than other stormwater treatment systems.”