(Don’t think this is scalable to large municipalities myself~ctm)
Updated Sat at 9:20pm
Video: A drain sock stopping litter from polluting local waterways (ABC News)
Cities across the globe are looking to Australia for a simple pollution solution to stop rubbish from spoiling creeks and river systems.
Key points:
- The City of Kwinana drain sock idea went viral internationally on Facebook
- Close by, the City of Cockburn has managed to turn rubbish into road base
- The ideas have attracted attention from as far as Europe and South America
The City of Kwinana, south of Perth, has generated international interest for its drain socks.
In March 2018, nets were fitted to the mouths of two local stormwater drains to trap litter and debris that washed into the system after a rain storm.
Kwinana Mayor Carol Adams said more than 25 million people had since interacted with a single picture of the drain sock in action that the council posted on social media.
“We’re still getting up to five telephone enquiries or email enquiries globally a week from Austin, Texas to the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Zambia and New Zealand,” she said.
“We’ve had calls from Chile, Brazil, Portugal, many European countries — I’ve even been on a Canadian weather station interview.
“Here we are, a city of 42,000 residents who had this really great idea that wasn’t very costly, and we’ve had this amazing response to it.”
Photo: The drain sock captures litter and excess debris. (ABC News: Gian De Poloni)
Ms Adams said the drain socks meant the city now spent less money manually clearing rubbish out of its creek system.
“I think some of the best ideas come from just the easiest and most simple concepts,” she said.
“I think it was the fact that you have a drain and you put a rope net over it and you can physically see the rubbish, the leaves and the debris that was coming out of that drain.
“People connected and thought, ‘I wonder whether that could be used in our city or town’ to fix up some of the issues that they have in their own native reserves.”
HT/Earthling2
Simple idea but what happens when the “sock” gets plugged, which it will? The sock can not distinquish between garbage and natural items such as leaves or small twigs which should be allowed through. Next we will have “sock” monitors who go around “knocking the socks off” at the end of each storm.
http://wyomingbusiness.org/news/casper-stormwater-cleanup-company-/11440
Sure this is new?
I worked in civil ‘back in the day’ and did a reasonable amount of storm water management. Wasn’t my preferred industry and I moved out of civil as soon as the career opportunities came up, but I do vaguely remember putting large catchment funnels at various points to collect waste material.
The other thing I remember from my time is that councils do not employ design teams. They have engineers at a project management type level but the actual leg work is contracted out to private industry. I honestly doubt the council in question had anything to do with this ‘idea’ apart from paying for it.
I think this is less an epoch defining moment in storm water management and more a case of the ABC reporters actually stepping away from their latte and yoga classes for long enough to discover – briefly – that there is an entire world out there they have never noticed.
Personally I put this down as a lazy ABC fluff piece bordering on fake news.
Settle – it’s a long way from East Perth to Kwinana. Respect to the ABC Journo for putting it on the line there – Kwinana is rough.
I have always wondered where my missing socks ran off to. Now I know they had big goals in life.
This isn’t a new idea, I have seen exactly the same thing on storm drain outlets along the ocean cliffs south of Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Yes, they do work and work in large cities such as Sydney.
Then The Fugitive wouldn’t work.
Drain socks will clog storm drains shut and cause local flooding.
Better to have something like a chicken wire hemisphere over the drain. Allows water in, but directs detritus around and away.
Oh yeah. Good old Aussie ingenuity. The thing is, this “problem” was solved in other countries generations ago. In Australia, storm water is drained away by large gaping holes in the curb so large, soft drink bottles can fall through. In Europe, where I grew up, grates in the surface of the road next to the curb are used instead. That in itself solves most of the “rubbish in the rivers and creeks” problem already. On top of that, perforated drum is suspended under the grate, to catch the smaller debrie, which may still fall throug. This drum was regularly lifted and emptied by cleaning crew. Simple. No magic socks required… Only if Aussies could stop for ever re-inventing the wheel and learn from others. Sadly, most Aussies believe, they live in a Clever Country.
This is very old technology. My company (ACF Environmental) has been producing these and other like items since the mid 80’s (& we sell to municipalities regularly). The above style of drain covers are already spec’d into most construction plans. Many different options are available in the industry to address flow rates (some even have emergency overflows to avoid ponding). There are even permanent or temporary options for “in” drain applications. Just so we are all aware… Dealing with the removal of sediments, hydrocarbons, & trash in the water ways is big business. We even have a division that deals with storing the excess storm-water so that the existing water system can cope with it.
Well, in fact, I’ve seen these in use on beaches for at least 20 years now. Perhaps the story serves other purposes, too.