While communities around the country are struggling to meet two of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase II permit requirements - "public education and outreach" and "public participation and involvement" - a nonprofit group in Seattle, WA, has found a way to bring dramatically different segments of the public intoinvolve the public directly in the clean-water arena. Business owners, high school students, and others in the Puget Sound area are coming together over a deceptively simple idea that has promise for transforming stormwater management.

How Did the Program Begin?

The Seattle-based organization Planet CPR started the "Grate Mates" program two years ago. Volunteer groups seeking to raise money install Grate Mates - catch-basin inserts of the type often used for sediment control on construction sites - in existing parking-lot storm drains. Local business owners who want the inserts installed in the storm drains on their property pay $98.50 apiece. For each one installed, the business gets a $50 tax deduction, and the volunteer group gets to keep the $20 profitfor the inserts, and the volunteer group gets a stipend for each filter installed.
      Joy Huber, Planet CPR’s executive director, knows how to make things happen. "All my life I’ve been working with community groups, youth groups, and grassroots action projects," she says. Although stormwater per se wasn’t her original focus, protecting the salmon in the northwest Northwest certainly was.

      She recalls the first time she saw a catch-basin insert, which someone handed to her during a meeting., of out context. "He didn’t explain it very well," she recalls. "I was looking at it, and when I figured it out and realized how simple it was, I just came unglued. I thought, finally, here is something everybody can do that’ll really help the environment. I realized that this was a good project for young people, particularly high school kids." She lost no time in suggesting the idea to a local high school science teacher, who put his classes to work testing installing the inserts on the campus’s 22 catch basins and studying what got caught.

Washington’s Grate Mate Experience

Despite its simple beginnings, more than 40 Washington political and business leaders and the entire congressional delegation state’s two senators from Washington have endorsed the program. Businesses throughout the Puget Sound area are participating, and in one suburban town, Enumclaw, student volunteers installed more than 80 filters on a single Saturday - in virtually all the town’s parking-lot storm drains. "We’ve recently come under listing under the Endangered Species Act for several of our salmon species," says Mark Bauer, Enumclaw city administrator. "One of the primary issues is dealing with water quality. This system looked like a filtration system that would give a much-needed initial cleaning to nonpoint sources in particular parking lots."
      To date, more than 1,500 filters have been installed in the Puget Sound area through this program. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Building Owners and Managers Association, and other professional organizations Prominent leaders of service organizations such as City Year and professional organizations such as various chambers of commerce and the Building Owners and Managers Association recommend the program to their members. "The great thing about our program is that we operate without jurisdictional boundaries, so everybody’s willing to talk to uswe’re able to educate the public about the problem of polluted runoff as well as provide a solution that gets people in action," notes Rocky Hrachovec, P.E., Planet CPR’s associate director. Last year Planet CPR received a $451,000 federal grant to test the program in the Puget Sound area, with $500,000 expected for 2001. has raised $1 million in federal and local funding to demonstrate the program in Washington State. Although the grants is are currently limited for to activities in the Puget Sound areaWashington, Planet CPR plans to expand the program eventually into the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles. Communities as far away as San Antonio, TX; Atlanta, GA; and Boston, MA, have expressed interest in replicating the program.

How Well Do Grate Mates Protect Water Quality?

Limited short-term testing on earlier insert designs doesn’t provide definitive performance data, butA 1995 government-sponsored study found that filters with designs similar to the Grate Mate were able to achieve up to 50% oil and grease removal after several months in the field. Hrachovec says Planet CPR is working with the manufacturer on design improvements to increase efficiency over time. "My goal is to get 50% removal of oil, trash, and sediment for a six-month time period," he says. Oil-absorbent copolymer filters within the Grate Mates increase the amount of free oil captured, but as Hrachovec points out, only about 10-30% of the oil washed into the drains from parking lots is free.is gathering field data to quantify what types and amounts of material the filters capture. "Field testing has shown that each filter is catching up to 50 pounds of solids in the course of six months. "There’s a large percentage of oil that’s actually fixed to the solids, so if you’re catching the solids you’re also catching the oil." Our goal is to capture the trash, the solids, and the free oil that causes the sheen that people see on the water surface during a rainstorm."
      Although catch-basin inserts are a recommended best management practice in King County for oil control in parking-lot runoff, they are not yet required. ""The city of Seattle at this point doesn’t have any regulations governing existing catch basins in existing developments,"The key to utilizing inserts effectively is to ensure that they are changed regularly," says Hrachovec. but he notes that the city does inspect periodically and require that catch basins be cleaned if the level of solids is too high. Planet CPR maintains that business owners can save money on cleaning costs by using and regularly replacing the inserts. "We keep track of every insert that is installed - the location, the business owner, and the volunteer group. We link up with the volunteers and business owners every six months to ensure that filters are changed on a regular basis. The stipend helps volunteer groups stay motivated to keep track of the filters in their community and stay involved in the project."

What Do Participants Say?

Business owners are enthusiastic about the program, with more than 100 properties having participated last year. John Hinds, property manager of the University Village Mall in Seattle, says, "The two most important parts of this program that interested me are that it provided an avenue for our kids to learn about the environment and get involved in their community in environmental issues, and it provided us an avenue to protect our waters, to keep pollutants from going down into our drain system. We feel that this does make a difference, and we definitely encourage other properties to follow in our steps." The filters are extremely effective, according to Jeanette Shockley, manager of Windsor Heights Apartments in SeaTac, WA. "The filters have been in for about three months and have helped tremendously. Before the kids installed the filters, an incredible amount of oil and trash was going straight into the system. I would highly recommend this program to other property managers." She adds, "The kids were wonderful to work with, and it is a great way to help with cleaning up water in the area."
      As further incentive for business owners, Planet CPR arranges publicity for those who participate. "We don’t have to wait for some government regulator to smack us with a hammer to make us do what we should have done anyway. I think that waiting around for somebody to force us to be responsible is a wrong way, because it then forces greater regulation on us. What we would like to see is a place where people voluntarily do this."One of the major Seattle network television stations is sponsoring a partnership campaign to showcase businesses that support the project.
      In addition to improving water quality, eEducation - of the young volunteers as well as the property owners - is another of the program’s primary goals.: "You never realize how much you’re polluting the earth until you actually see it!" exclaims Beverly Gerlt, a Grate Mate volunteer from Highline High School. Participant surveys show that more than 90% of the volunteers want to do additional Grate Mate projects (about 1,000 volunteers have participated so far)"Education for the kids and education for the landowners," says Hrachovec. "In many cases, b.usiness owners who have parking lots don’t recognize that they actually own waterfront property, because these drains go right to the stream." Observes Robert Drewel, Snohomish County executive, "Public education and public awareness are keys to achieving effective and sustainable salmon recovery, and this effort by Planet CPR fits in nicely with the county’s and with other public involvement efforts."
      Other program goals are helping volunteer groups with fundraising and building community spirit. "There can be a real synergy that develops," says Hrachovec. "The landowners are working with the kids to protect water quality, and for maybe the first time the kids can actually get to see that the business owner is a real person and really does care about the community."
      The Grate Mate program achieves the public education and involvement goals of the NPDES Phase II permit while engaging volunteers and raising awareness of stormwater issues among property owners. Businesses, local governments, and volunteer groups are working together to make a difference for water quality.
      For more information about establishing Grate Mate projects in your local area, contact Planet CPR at 206/285-3888.