Remember when stormwater filtration was at the forefront of runoff water quality treatment? Have the variables and performances that led to its successful history been displaced by recent Green Infrastructure (GI) or Low Impact Development (LID) initiatives, or is filtration a viable partner in the GI and LID arena? Boiling it down, why should we filter stormwater?

Filtration is the process of passing through, for the purpose of obstructing the passage of, or removal of a targeted material. In the stormwater industry, filtration has been employed in various forms for decades and is a tested ideology that provides quantifiable results. Through extensive testing, stormwater filtration products, such as the Stormwater Management StormFilter, or Jellyfish Filter, have yielded results that are both reproducible and quantifiable, for the removal of targeted pollutants.

Putting reproducible and quantifiable results into treatment systems that have defined mechanisms for capturing and “holding” targeted pollutants, is the single most credible reason for incorporating filter technologies into today’s GI and LID footprints.

So, the next time a project calls for GI or LID, consider the benefits of quantifiable treatment, have confidence that the pollutants do not migrate underground or off-site, maintenance for removal and disposal of pollutants is localized, and the advantages of filtered tributary runoff to GI/LID infrastructure.

Is it time for filtered pre-treatment upstream of GI / LID solutions? I welcome your commentary.