A pilot study at the snow yard to monitor LittaTrap™ performance over 18 months resulted in the installation of 15 units
The City of Brampton, Ontario, Canada is redeveloping its Public Works Yards to meet the future of Brampton’s growth, service expectations and commitment to a greener, cleaner environment.
The City of Brampton’s Sandalwood Works Yard is a base used for road maintenance and snow-clearing operations. In addition to servicing and maintaining roads, sidewalks and other City-owned infrastructure, they plough and remove snow from the City’s roadways, downtown core Brampton Transit bus stops, bridge deck sidewalks, school crossings, and walkways.
In the winter thousands of tonnes of snow, are loaded onto dump trucks and transported to the yard where it is stored and melted.
As a very active, high-traffic yard all year round, the City saw the need to update existing stormwater infrastructure with retrofittable technology to manage the solid wastes, debris and stormwater contaminants associated with these essential services that are being transported to the yard every day.
EnviroPod™ Canada in conjunction with their partners Imbrium Systems approached the Brampton Public Works team to trial the EnviroPod™ technologies: the EnviroPod™ Filter – a high-performing catch basin insert and the LittaTrap™ – a low-cost, hand-maintainable catch basin insert. Both technologies are highly engineered for high performance and high flows.
Two trial units were installed and monitored for 18 months to understand suitability across all weather conditions. The trial involved retrofitting the technology into existing catch basins at Sandalwood Works Yard and required no construction or disturbance to the existing infrastructure.
After 18 months of testing these new technologies, the City has retrofitted the remaining thirteen (13) of the fifteen (15) catch basins in the Yard with six (6) additional EnviroPod™ Filters and seven (7) LittaTraps™.
Different technologies were installed in different parts of the yard. The LittaTrap™ is a simple tool for managing plastics, gross solids and sediment in stormwater runoff. These were installed in lower contaminant-generating areas.
The EnviroPod™ is a high-performing catch basin insert capable of capturing fine sediments and associated pollutants such as heavy metals. The EnviroPod™ Filters were installed in areas that were subject to higher loadings of finer sediment from the snow melting operation. (Independent testing has shown the system removes over 90% of particles greater than 100 microns in size.)
