What should I do to keep sediment, trash, and debris out of my storm drains? We have received this question enough that I felt compelled to put out a post for others, who probably have the same issue. While I will almost always tell facilities to double-triple-quadruple down on housekeeping, inspections, sweeping, and storm drain clean out, that is often not enough. Depending on the type of your stormwater collection system, you as a facility manager or EHS staff need some other tools. Below are some tools (BMPs) for trench drains and catch basins for minimizing the amount of sediment, trash, and debris entering your stormwater system.
Trench Drain Inserts and BMPs
Catch Basin Inserts
For catch basins, there are many options from temporary storm drain inserts (e.g. witches hat or filter fabric) to more permanent ones (see below). For some options of permanent ones:
Things to Consider
When selecting the perfect BMP, much like the perfect car, there are many important considerations. Things like leather vs fabric seats for wearing hip waders or volume of trunk for sample coolers. For your BMPs, I would be looking at the following:
- Cost
- Installation – time, difficulty, and third-party or myself
- Drain size and flow rates
- Sample access (or lack thereof)
- Maintenance cost & time
- Other pollutants (e.g. metals removal – copper or zinc)
Please note: I don’t endorse any of these, just ones I have seen in action or come across before. I also have seen some great mesh filters and inserts that were crafted by facility staff themselves. If you have some skills, materials, and a gung-ho attitude you too can be a BMP manufacturer.
Next steps?
- Need help keeping track of all your inspections?
- Want to learn more about developing a proactive inspection program. Check out 3 Phases of a Successful EHS Inspection Program
