Case Study: Meeting Water Quality Standards with a StormChamber System

Challenge: Find the best stormwater system to manage industrial stormwater runoff

Waste management companies have to meet several regulations in an effort to ensure the environment is top of mind – especially since everything from plastics to pollutants and old electronics get tossed out by consumers. That’s why California Waste Services reached out to NDS for an environmentally friendly stormwater management solution to meet their needs for additional stormwater management capacity. With an ongoing goal of turning waste into resources and/or non-toxic byproducts, the company was interested in retrofitting their current stormwater system into one that would better meet this goal. Infiltration rates at the depth of their existing single layer underground stormwater system also did not drain the system in the required amount of time.

Solution: NDS’ StormChamber double layer design best for treating industrial runoff

After researching competitive products that were not able to meet their needs, the specifier consulted with NDS engineers and a double layer StormChamber SC-34 solution was selected. In 2019, the team installed 130 StormChambers and four SedimenTraps to accommodate 8,263 ft3 of stormwater storage. The system allowed for a deeper trench of approximately 10 ft. The soils at the deeper depth were more conducive to biodegradation of pollutants and the StormChamber infiltration system efficiently helped to eliminate heavy metals and chemicals that might be escaping from their storm drains. The soils at this depth also infiltrated much better, allowing the system to fully drain in the 24-hour period required by regulations.

Impact: Regulations and customer needs were achieved with a system that’s easier to maintain

The StormChambers, used in combination with NDS’s patented SedimenTraps, provided a technologically advanced infiltration and bio-reactive system that facilitated the inherent ability of micro-organisms to break down pollutants and nutrients into non-toxic byproducts, e.g., hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water. The NDS StormChamber system not only rectified a potentially hazardous waste issue, but the design flexibility of the detention system and its ability to be double stacked allowed California Waste Services to achieve the required amount of infiltration not allowable by other types of systems within the same footprint. In addition, StormChamber systems are easier to inspect, require less maintenance and the SedimenTraps provide for quicker, easier and significantly less expensive sediment management than competing systems.