In January 2017, Kevin Jonathan (Stormwater Engineer) and Dr. John Cheah (R&D Engineer) travelled to California and Oregon in the USA to receive training on Filterra® design and production, and detailed engineering design training for SW360’s other products. The main purpose of the trip was to learn how to manufacture the Filterra® media with high consistency.

In the USA, our partners Contech have been installing Filterra® (rapid micro-retention stormwater treatment devices) for over 15 years. There are currently over 7000 Filterra® units installed in the US, and the inground data shows that Filterra® units continually remove pollutants at their claimed pollutant removal percentages and maintain infiltration rates over 2500 mm/hr, even after many years of service.

One of the main reasons Filterra® units last and have such a good performance record is due to the stringent quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) protocols that are enforced during manufacture, installation, and commissioning of treatment units. Such a strict QA/QC process for bioretention media production or for the installation of bioretention devices in NZ does not exist. While Stormwater360 has been given all the information by Contech to replicate the manufacture and implementation of Filterra® in NZ, there is no substitute for physically seeing the week-long manufacturing and testing process that is conducted in the USA for each media blend, and to be able to ask detailed practical questions of the experienced personnel who have worked in designing, manufacturing and optimising all aspects of Filterra® for over a decade.

Dr. John Cheah comments on his overall impression of the trip " The trip has been invaluable. The observation of how Filterra® media is tested and blended in the US has enabled us to better optimize our own media blends and will raise the consistency of our locally made Filterra® media blends and final product performance. Bringing in a new product from off-shore, even if it is a proven product system, will require a lot of work. The learnings gained from the trip will  facilitate a smoother entry of this next level of bioretention stormwater treatment into the NZ market."

For more information on Filterra® please contact [email protected] or phone 0800 STORMWATER