Storm Water Management Installations in Missouri Park
Infiltronics Environmental has signed an agreement with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Division of State Parks, to provide two storm water management installations in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park. According to an Infiltronics Environmental press release, a Kickstarter campaign has also been launched to fund installations.
“A Kickstarter campaign has been launched to fund this project because Infiltronics Environmental is a young, lean company and the scale of these installations is a lot for it to handle,” said Kathleen Trauth, Infiltronics Environmental President, in an Infiltronics Environmental press release. “With stormwater becoming a larger and larger issue, new solutions are required and we need your help to get this solution closer to the finish line.”
The Rock Bridge Memorial State Park installations will allow the company to further research a solution to manage these impacts and increase education on this issue. According to Infiltronics Environmental, it also can help to address sites at this natural place experiencing negative impacts from storm water runoff.
The technology at these installations is the patented storm water redistribution and infiltration device the company is developing. The device takes concentrated storm water from a roof or parking lot and returns it to the soil. According to Infiltronics Environmental, this reverses the negative impacts of unmanaged managed storm water runoff such as erosion, carrying pollution to streams, and the degradation of stream banks. The device also will allow engineers and developers to meet storm water requirements, saving time and money.
The device is a tubular structure composed of widely available materials, such as geotextile fabric and aggregate; and is placed below ground. According to the release, the device has been lab tested and already has been installed on one site.
Before development, the team received a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps grant to conduct interviews with people involved in the storm water field, including engineers, developers, installers and other storm water technology companies, to understand what problems exist in the industry and see if they can help solve those problems.
“Stormwater is becoming more and more of a mainstream issue because it is impacting people in very real ways,” said Virginia Trauth, Infiltronics Environmental CTO. “Whether it’s because your basement backs up every time it rains even a little bit of your water quality is impacted by pollution from runoff, stormwater impacts everyone and everywhere and we need to manage it properly.”
