With nearly 10 million people living in Los Angeles County, each resident's contribution to storm water trash pollution adds up quickly and creates an environmental impact. In the county, approximately 100 million gal of contaminated water and debris flow through the storm drain system each dry day. On rainy days, the daily flow can increase to 10 billion gal per day.
The city of Los Angeles was mandated by the federal government to comply with the Clean Water Act. The city was given 12 years to be 100% trash total maximum daily load (TMDL) compliant, which meant it had to have a 100% reduction in trash getting into all waterways that lead to the Pacific Ocean.
The city needed to find a product to fit its needs to keep trash from entering the storm drain system at the street level. The Hydra TMDL Systems Inc. founder and inventor was the director of engineering at Buildit Eng., which designed, developed, and manufactured the surf gate and debris dam for Phase 1 of the trash TMDL compliance. Over the next 10 years, he researched, designed and tested numerous trash reduction devices and systems.
The Hydra automatic retractable screen (ARS) is the result of this research. With 92.64% reduction, ARS is the highest-rated and -certified ARS system that the city of Los Angeles has ever tested at its calibrated test site in Koreatown. The Koreatown test site has seen a variety of devices tested over the past 14 years, and the highest-rated ARS system previously was the surf gate at 87% reduction. The city of Los Angeles is the first in the U.S. to meet the 100% trash TMDL compliance in the Clean Water Act.
