Stormwater Treatment Trains: "Don't get run over", says Gary Minton
Unit Processes and Operations
“The term treatment train has become ensconced in the lexicon of stormwater treatment terminology since first introduced (Horner and Skupien 1994),” wrote Gary R. Minton in an article he wrote for Stormwater Magazine in 2006.
The article addresses a series of separate treatment devices or 'boxes'. According to Gary Minton, a general rule to follow is this: “Do not use two unit operations that serve the same function.”
“..more rational decisions on treatment system selection and design would occur if stormwater engineers adopted a concept long established in chemical engineering, potable water supply engineering, and wastewater engineering: unit processes and unit operations,” emphasized Minton.
To read the complete story in Stormwater Magazine, click on Treatment Trains: Don't get run over.
Acknowledgement:
Before STORMWATER, The Journal for Surface Water Quality Professionals, there was no single publication written specifically for the professional involved with surface water quality issues, protection, projects, and programs.
About Gary Minton
Dr. Gary Minton has been a leading contributor to the development of design criteria for rainwater/stormwater treatment relevant to the conditions of the Pacific Northwest. He is the author of the textbook Stormwater Treatment.
First published in 2002, the only true textbook, it explains how stormwater treatment systems “work”. The 3rd edition will be published in Fall 2010. To learn more, click on Stormwater Treatment.
“This is not an academic book. It is written for the practicing professional,” states Gary Minton. “It is the only publication that fully explains pollutant removal processes (Unit Processes), their relationship to key design criteria, and modification of current design criteria to create more effective and most importantly more cost-effective treatment systems.”
2007 Cross-Border Conference
In October 2007, Dr. Minton was a member of a cross-border panel at a joint Washington State/British Columbia conference held in Seattle. The panel compared an American top-down prescriptive approach versus a Canadian bottom-up educational approach.
To learn more, click on Rainwater Management on Diverging Paths in British Columbia and Washington State?
Previous Gary Minton stories on Water Bucket
Rainfall Capture & Infiltration: Why a 'Simplified Integrated Design Concept for Filters' is needed
Stormwater Treatment Terminology: A Tower of Babel
Posted June 2010