Stormwater Solutions: Fighting Pathogen Growth in Industrial Stormwater with ESCS

ESCSI Member Debbie Stringer authored an article featured in Stormwater Solutions examining how ESCS can be used as an effective preventative measure in biofilters as a first-level treatment for industrial stormwater. Read an excerpt below.

As urban areas expand into more industrial areas, stormwater runoff may be increasingly at risk of being contaminated by chemicals, heavy metals, sediments and other pollutants. If not managed and treated appropriately, stormwater can adversely affect the quality of water sources, damage property and harm local ecosystems.

To minimize pollutant discharge and protect water quality, facility managers and owners work with local water quality authorities and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), a facet of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Water Act, to establish best management practices (BMP) by developing stormwater pollution prevention plans (SWPPPs). Efficient prevention practices include identifying potential pollution sources at industrial sites and devising different strategies to control and mitigate their release. Recommended measures for pollutants include the installation of erosion control measures, sediment basins, filtration systems or vegetative buffers to prevent or reduce the transport of pollutants in stormwater runoff. Expanded shale, clay or slate (ESCS) is a great medium for all these green infrastructure applications.

Read the full Stormwater Solutions article here.