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About Biofiltration
Why?
Biofiltration was developed to reduce the amount of pollution carried by waterways and storm runoff. The modernized world, directly and indirectly, pumps chemicals into our natural water system. Biofiltration allows for most, if not all, of those toxic chemicals to be pulled out before they contaminate the groundwater.

 

Where?
It is popular among governments, who use it in infrastructure development. Biofiltration structures can take the shape of swales, strips, or artificial wetlands. When implemented along roads or other areas with high chemical presence, it is critical in preventing corruption of the water table. 

 

Who?
Prince George’s County, Maryland’s Department of Environmental Resources is credited with the development of biofiltration “in the early 1990′s as an alternative to traditional BMP structures
 
How?
 Biofiltration structures are designed to exponentially augment the naturally occurring process of pollutant removal. In natural conditions, soil and rocks capture some chemicals before they leak into the groundwater. In an intentionally placed biofilter, carefully designed layers of earth are put down to make pollutant removal much more effective. 

This diagram shows plans for an urban bioswale to be constructed in a parking lot, an area where storm runoff will carry many of the chemicals used in cars and road tar.

Biofiltration in the Future

Challenges to biofiltration come mainly from the limited success of past installations. Even though each individual biofiltration installation will face a different set of conditions, many have been created using the same basic guideline, causing system failure. It is up to biotechnologists to determine a set of guidelines for building biofiltrators which can be modified for many circumstances, and therefore experience success in pulling chemicals from the waterways. 

Shown here is a succesful constructed wetland project, designed to capture heavy metals in storm runoff.

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