EGCA Magazine ---- EGCA member Bio Clean Environmental Services Inc., Oceanside, has just completed installation of its patented nutrient separation baffle box for the City of Laguna Niguel. According to Bio Clean President Greg Kent, the baffle box is a large concrete vault that goes in the ground, and has the capability of treating any flow storm water ratio from 15-inch pipes up to 70-inch pipes. In so doing, the system removes up to 90 percent of the sediment in these baffle boxes. The system features a patented upper nutrient screen which traps and collects the trash, litter, and organic material that is normally disturbed when it rains. Following the storm, the water descends to the bottom of the pipe, and everything captured in the upper basket dries out, making its removal quick and easy.

"It is a simple installation," Kent said, "and relatively inexpensive." An average box costs between $15,000 and $20,000, plus installation. There are seven models available, ranging in size from 4 feet x 6 feet x 72 inches tall to 10 feet x 14 feet x 96 inches tall and treats all matter in pipes from 15 inches up to 60 inches. The system has been used successfully on the East Coast since the 1990s and was introduced here on the West Coast approximately three years ago.

At the Laguna Niguel site, the unit is situated approximately 500 feet "upstream" from a detention pond. Says Greg, "Over the last several years, that pond became loaded with sediments and has become impossible to clean. All that vegetation became a wetland." With the new unit, the sediments are more easily captured and contained, Greg reports. According to the City of Laguna Niguel's Nick Renn, the system installation was done over a period of two days, delayed a bit by rain.

"It will take a few months to see how effective it is, but we are expecting it to do well," he said. "It is taking the place of the piping that was collecting trash and was constantly in need of a clean out, but it has not yet gone through a baptism by fire yet."