On Tue, 31 Jan 2006 15:11:48 +0000, Tex John wrote:

As an environmental scientist for a wetlands consultant firm in Houston,
I thought this article was great and worth passing on.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4654362.stm

A bit of proof of what us wetland guys have been saying for decades...

John

We have a bunch of these here in Bellingham, Washington. I've heard them
reffered to them as "bioretention" mostly, but I gather that they are one
in the same.
All new commercial construction here is fully responsible for
their run off. All new commercial construction have bioretention, dry
wells of these "filter boxes" (for a lack of a better word}.

These filter boxes are generaly found in large parking lots. These are
just large parking strips planted with trees and shrubs. The way they work
is run off is directed to the "box", the water filters down through layers
of soil, rock, sand, fabric and charcoal. Part way down is a pipe that
connects to the storm drain and after the box fills most of the way with
water, the over flow goes to the drain. Otherwise the box fills and the
trees consume the water over time.

We also have porous concrete projects poping up here and there. Porous
concrete is way cool stuff and it costs just the same as regular concrete,
but hte install labor costs are much lower.

http://www.uvm.edu/~ran/ran/toolbox/bmp/bellingham.php

http://www.thcahill.com/pconcrete.html

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