Storm Drain Filter Proves Effective
January 18, 2003
By MARTY GRAHAM
NSTAFF WRITER

FALLBROOK ---- This week, Greg Kent pulled 80 pounds of stuff out of a Fallbrook storm drain, and county officials call that success.

That's because the drain, on Mission Road adjacent to Oasis High School, has had a filter for the last six months that keeps the stuff from ending up in a creek less than 20 feet away.

And that creek feeds into one of the region's rivers, perhaps the Santa Margarita a few miles north of the high school, or Pilgrim Creek, a ways southeast.

And from there, that 80 pounds of stuff would have headed right into the ocean.

"What people in Ramona, Escondido, Fallbrook do has a very direct impact on the people and the water quality at the beach, make no mistake about that," said Regional Water Quality Control Board Director John Robertus. "Everything that goes in a storm drain within 70 miles of the coast ends up at the coast ---- that's the geography of this watershed."

In the last few years, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has come to recognize that storm drain runoff is now the worst source of water pollution in the nation. That's partly because nearly every municipality has improved its sewage treatment to the point that sewage spills only occasionally.

It's also because urban growth has left the area with more waste and fewer grassy areas for it to harmlessly soak in. Instead, it ends up in local storm drains. The runoff, produced on sunny days as well as rainy days, doesn't get treated and often comes from unidentified sources.

So treating, controlling and measuring the pollutants becomes a difficult and arduous task, now left to municipal governments. Including the county of San Diego, which hired Kent's Oceanside company, Bioclean, to fit the storm drain by Oasis High with filters and booms, and to empty the catch basket and replace the cellulose booms in each drain every three months.

"I'm amazed at what people dump," Kent said. "Do they throw this stuff out the window while they're driving?"

He is holding up a champagne bottle as he speaks, perhaps a souvenir of celebrations two weeks ago. That's an unusual find, he said. But he expects the rest: countless cigarette butts, soda and beer cans, broken glass, a mound of sand and dirt, some rotting grass clippings and a large wet mound of unidentifiable brown, ah, stuff.

Some of that is what experts call particulate matter, and even more of that ends up on the filtering booms around the edges of the basket. At about 60 percent used up, the booms smell of motor oil and look greasy. The oil and other car and truck fluids, and particles from tires, brakes and whatever drags on the road also end up in the filters and baskets.

And, Kent said, there's something he always sees: a dozen flattened plastic bottles that were sold full of water. While he usually finds the pint, liter and quart sizes, Kent said he was surprised to see an empty 1-gallon jug in the storm drain.

"People drink this stuff because they think it's healthy and they're being environmentally sound, and then they throw the plastic in the storm drain," he said. "Plastic is forever if you don't recycle it."

This week, at this drain, one of 24 the county fitted with filters in June and July, Kent estimated that trash made up 30 percent of what he pulled out. At more urban locations, he expects to find more fast-food wrappers, he said. About 50 percent of what comes out is dirt and silt. While the portions change some, the contents of the drains almost always are the same, Kent said.

"As you get into urban areas, you find more trash," he said. "And there's always lots of organics."

Organics is a lovely euphemism for the source of the odor: pet waste, grass and leaves, lawn waste that have all sat damp for as long as three months in the basket Kent's crews empty every three months.

Not only are they nasty smelling, the organics carry trouble into the waterways, Kent said.

"Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and bacteria ride with the organics, so capturing them is that much more important," he said. "Nothing is 100 percent, but we're sure it makes things better."

Contact staff writer Marty Graham at (760) 740-3517 or mgraham@nctimes.com.