Portland Postal Distribution Center

It was the Facilities Manager of the Vehicle Maintenance Center of the US Postal Distribution Center who also had the environmental responsibility of achieving stormwater quality compliance for their entire 10-acre site. Being the central distribution for the State of Oregon and SW Washington, hundreds of long-range tractor-trailers, cube vans, cargo trucks, and postal trucks drive in and out every day from this facility. And along with each of these heavy vehicles comes hundreds of miles of dirt, grease, tire fines, brake dust, engine exhaust, and power train leakages. 

Our client, Bill – the vehicle maintenance manager, believed that he was never going to get this site to meet the State of Oregon’s benchmarks for stormwater quality; but, in going into a Level 2 status, the site needed an advanced treatment BMP that would keep them good for the next 2 years.  For in less than 2 years, the entire distribution facility was moving to a new location by the airport.

His environmental management and their consultants looked into what style of treatment would be appropriate for this interim period.  In his mind – as long as the treatment was feasible, it really did not have to work.  Just keep the stormwater inspections at bay…

Well of all of the presentations, the US Postal Service picked out our Gullywasher Metal Compliant Basket Style catch basin filter inserts.  The site had 41 catch basins to protect, including 3 outside their fencing in an area we called ‘Heroin Alley’ due to all of the transients living underneath the bridgeworks.  Unfortunately, those 3 ‘protected’ catch basins were also the transients’ ‘toilets’ and trash containers for their hypodermics. Absolutely disgusting!

What the management was not prepared for was our proposal to clean these inserts every 3 weeks, provide site sweeping monthly, and vacuum out the catch basin yearly.   It always amazes me that the housekeeping concerns seems to be always to left off the table for management review.  But we insisted! (The 3 outside were treated like ‘med waste’.)

We installed our 41 basket-type catch basin inserts, and after a lengthy protracted bidding process and contract approval for the cleaning services, we went to service the inserts.  The catch basin inserts have already serving the site over 2 months’ time (Portland rain events = lots of rain).   When Gullywasher pulled and cleaned these filter inserts, there was an estimated 1,100 pounds of muck loaded in them at had to be scooped out into 5 – 55-gallon drums, followed by a thorough washing. Quite a few of the filter inserts had the muck go septic due to all of the engine and transmission leaks.

Still with that being said, all of these MetalCompliant filter inserts were placed back into service. That allows for an understanding of what has been flowing into the Willamette River for the last 80+ years with each rain event.  Just look at what our MetalCompliant inserts look like with just 3 weeks’ worth of muck – every 3 weeks!

Every 3 Weeks

However, the 2nd and more astonishing thing that Bill was not prepared for was when he received his quarterly analytical lab results back.  His site was in industrial stormwater benchmark compliance for the very first time!  And here when he thought he was just buying a band-aid to keep the environmental regulators off of his back!

This is where the magic of our Gullywasher industrial stormwater filters – they can be easily washed off and reused again and again – for years!

They may look a little ragged due to their extended use (this one is over 2 years old with again 100s of heavy vehicles traveling over it daily); however, they still produce great results in removing metals!

Now our competition will state that you can wash out their filter inserts also. But their unknown media will turn into an oatmeal mush in less than 2 months.  How does one clean that?! The answer is that you cannot clean those to an effective level for reuse!

But by throwing away a barely used filter insert, you might as well start throwing in your hard-earned money into that catch basin.  And if you keep on using the competition’s dirty filter insert, it is not going give your site the treatment capacity (because even after cleaning, it is plugged) or the metals removal (because it is an oatmeal mush).

New insert	Installed

Note the amount of incoming lead in comparison to the amount of zinc in the Winter analysis. It is thought that with this amount of incoming lead, the zinc was being displaced by the stronger lead attraction to the MetalCompliant media.

We at Gullywasher publish analytical lab results of our MetalCompliant filter inserts on individual metals removals. And here they are available for your analysis!
No one else publishes, which makes me wonder… what is being hidden?