Press Releases

County of Sonoma Begins Spring Highway 12 Improvements Using Filterra Bioretention Systems

October 20, 2008 – Boyes Hot Springs, CA – Sonoma County 1st District Supervisor, Valerie Brown and other members of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission, Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works Department, California Department of Transportation, District 4, and the Springs Redevelopment Advisory Committee joined at the Thomson Avenue Park and Ride today for the Springs Highway 12 groundbreaking ceremony.

The Springs Highway 12 street and sidewalk improvement project will install eight Filterra Bioretention Systems with native plants at various locations along Highway 12 from Agua Caliente Creek to Boyes Boulevard for water quality improvements. The Filterra systems combine landscape plants with an engineered filtration media to capture and remove stormwater runoff pollutants, such as trash and debris, oils and grease, sediments, nutrients, metals and bacteria, prior to discharging treated runoff into local waterways. Various native plants will be used in the eight Filterra systems to help remove stormwater pollutants while adding aesthetics to the streetscape and pedestrian area.

In addition to the installation of the Filterra systems, the Springs Highway 12 project will also include street widening, curb, gutter and sidewalk construction, storm drain improvements, pedestrian street lights and traffic-signal modifications. The project is expected to be completed $1.1 million under the engineer’s estimate of $3.6 million. The Filterra systems design allowed site constraints to be accommodated for the pedestrian and street area, while also meeting local and federal water quality requirements which will significantly reduce the amount of targeted pollutants discharged into the storm drain system. 

About Filterra Bioretention Systems
Over 2,500 Filterra Bioretention stormwater filtration systems are installed nationwide, each one harnessing nature’s power to treat stormwater runoff through a biological process.  Filterra Bioretention Systems provide an urban solution for Low Impact Development (LID), meeting or exceeding federal and state regulatory guidelines for pollutant removal efficiencies of TSS, phosphorus, nitrogen and bacteria, while offering an aesthetically pleasing, space saving design. Filterra’s design and small footprint provides a benefit to developers, engineers, cities, counties, and the receiving waters. Filterra is approved in jurisdictions across the U.S, including Maryland MDE, Washington DOE and Virginia DCR.

Filterra Bioretention Systems is a division of Americast, Inc.

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