Page 23 - Port of Baltimore March April 2013

March/April 2013 ■ The Port of Baltimore [21]
On the Horizon
The MPA will install and
evaluate a JELLYFISH FILTER®,
a stormwater filtration system
that captures oil and debris
and reduces 60 percent of
phosphorus, 50 percent of
nitrogen and 50 percent of
metals. The system is capable
of capturing particles as
small as two microns. The
Jellyfish will be installed on
the Dundalk Marine Terminal,
and approximately three acres
of stormwater will funnel into
a large vault, where reusable
membrane filters capture the
pollutants.
Rainwater that runs off of
roofs and into downspouts
also eventually enters the
Chesapeake Bay and can carry
zinc, copper and lead. Water
from the downspouts on half of
an MPA maintenance building
on the Dundalk Marine Terminal
will be treated with a MODULAR
WETLAND SYSTEM, a precast,
compact system that filters
nutrients. The building covers
nearly three-quarters of an acre,
and the downspouts will treat
water from 15,000 square feet of
the roof.
A floating wetland system does
more than just capture nutrients;
it actually mitigates them. Plans
call for FLOATING WETLANDS
IN COLGATE CREEK to assess
if this particular mitigation
technique is effective.
get this done,” said Bill Richardson, MPA
Environmental Manager.
The MPA won an award from the
Maryland Department of the Environment
for a project on a piece of land that
normally wouldn’t draw a second glance
— a swath alongside a parking lot at the
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Runoff
from the parking lot flowed into the Jones
Falls, but the MPA created a bio-retention
area, replacing unused pavement with
trees, flowers and shrubs. The bio-retention
area naturally filters pollutants such as
phosphorous and nitrogen, as well as
reducing erosion.
As part of its award-winning public-
private partnership with Ports America
Chesapeake, the MPA had entered into
an agreement that allowed Ports America
to construct a 50-foot-deep berth at the
Seagirt Marine Terminal to accommodate
the larger ships expected when the
widened Panama Canal opens in 2015.
During the construction of the berth, which
was completed in 2012, a stormwater vault,
the first of its type to be used on the East
Coast, was installed. It collects water
from the pier, filters it through a series of
chambers equipped with baffles and then
discharges the cleaned water back into the
harbor. The chambers and baffles, which
work off the flow of water and do not need
pumps, allow sediments and debris to
settle to the bottom, where periodically it
can be removed and properly disposed.
For Earth Day, MPA employees put
leaves on a “tree” on a wall at MPA offices
pledging to do something to improve the
environment and donating at least $1.
The tree raised $200, which was donated
to the Clean Bread and Cheese Creek
organization in Dundalk.
COURTESY OF PORTS AMERICA CHESAPEAKE
KATHY BERGREN SMITH