Principal investigator: Shirley Clark

University:  The Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg

Industry partners: Hydro-Dynamic LLC

WorldWater’s 2013 stormwater issue identified the stormwater treatment market as a growth area with a 20-year estimate of $105 billion in expenditures. In 2018, that expenditure was updated to $7.3 billion per year (United States Stormwater Management Market By Tool, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2013-2023). Every few years, with each new permit cycle, the treatment requirements for stormwater become more stringent.

Manufactured treatment devices for stormwater are desired. They have a small footprint, are usually underground, and have documented performance results. The testing results are especially useful to industrial stormwater dischargers whose permits have concentration-based limits. Violating these numerical targets triggers specific actions, ranging from required investments in additional stormwater pollution control measures to monetary fines.

The industrial stormwater pollutants of concern are sediment, metals, and hydraulics fluids, plus other chemicals used on the site. Many, but not all, of these pollutants bind to stormwater solids. Therefore, sediment removal from stormwater could greatly reduce these pollutants. COUNTERcurrent inclined plate settlers provide stormwater treatment with sediment removals greater than 80 – 85%. Metals’ removal efficiencies of approximately 50 – 70% also have been documented. This project evaluates the pollutant removal efficiency of the DBS-UUSI, a CONcurrent inclined plate settler, which preliminary testing has shown to be even more efficient than the COUNTERcurrent settlers.