In an effort to curb water pollution caused by stormwater runoff,
Lawrence Technological University in Southfield will become the first demonstration site in the U.S. of a new green drainage system.
The conventional drainage system in one of Lawrence Tech's parking lots will be replaced this month with a system that uses a green technology called energy passive groundwater recharge products, or EGRPs.
Polluted storm runoff and flooding are serious problems facing most, if not all, developed cities that have paved over much of their natural land, which would normally absorb the water and filter it of pollutants.
Lawrence Tech is partnering with Detroit-based Parjana Distribution LLC to test the new green technology, first on its own grounds before replacing systems at universities in Ohio, California, Florida and Washington, D.C., by the end of September 2016.
The goal is to create a new national standard in storm water design.
The partners have received a $100,000 grant and are working to raise $300,000 more in order to complete the pilot project.
Lawrence Tech is home to the Great Lake Stormwater Management Institute. Civil engineering professor and project director Donald Carpenter says the new system is designed to handle up to an inch of rain during a 24-hour period.
“The first inch of rain represents the stormwater runoff volume with the highest pollutant loads, so capturing and infiltrating that volume will improve the water quality downstream,” says Carpenter.
The campus master plan calls for the installation of stormwater treatment wetlands, additional porous pavement, rain gardens, naturalized riparian buffers, an infiltration basin, and an integrated drainage system that mitigates storm water runoff from all the parking lots.
Source: Lawrence Technological University
Writer: Kim North Shine
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