Beyond the Curb: Why Stormwater Management is Key to Miami-Dade County's Prosperity

The Economic Power of Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is the lifeblood of Miami-Dade County. According to the 2023 Biscayne Bay Economic Study, the Bay supports approximately 448,500 jobs and generates $64 billion in annual economic output. Beyond its beauty, it drives our tourism, real estate, and commercial fishing industries.

The Hidden Threat: Stormwater Pollution Many people don't realize that our street drainage systems are direct highways to the ocean. When it rains, water washes litter, plastic bottles, and organic debris into storm drains. From there, this untreated pollution flows into local canals and straight into Biscayne Bay.

This isn't just a "trash" problem—it's a nutrient problem. Organic debris like leaves and grass clippings break down and release nitrogen and phosphorus, which can lead to harmful algae blooms and fish kills.

Innovation in Action: SOP Technologies Stormwater Filters To combat the pollution, Miami-Dade County has implemented SOP Technologies’ patented Stormwater Filters as a Best Management Practice (BMP).

These filters are uniquely designed to:

• Capture Trash at the Source: By blocking debris at the curb, items like Styrofoam and plastic bags never enter the pipes.

• Reduce Nutrients: By keeping organic matter out of the water, we reduce the nutrient loading that threatens the Bay’s ecosystem.

• Save Taxpayer Dollars: It is significantly more cost-effective to sweep trash off the street than it is to remove it from deep within the drainage system or from the Bay itself.

A Sustainable Future By investing in these smart stormwater solutions, Miami-Dade County is ensuring that our "Blue Heart" remains healthy, vibrant, and economically productive for generations to come.

Capturing Plastic Pellets, Nurdles at Plastics Manufacturing Facility

To capture plastic pellets, also known as nurdles, SOP Technologies designed and implemented customized stormwater filters for a plastic manufacturing facility. This prevents the nurdles from leaving the facility and discharging to local waterways. Contact SOP Technologies for custom engineering solutions.

SOP Technologies Customized Screens

VIDEO

Video transcript

Plastic pellets, also called "nurdles", are used to manufacture the products we use everyday, but when they escape into the natural environment, they have devastating consequences. One plastics manufacturer didn’t want to allow their plastic pellets to escape their facility, so they contacted SOP Technologies.

In addition to ensuring plastics don’t leave the facility, the plant wanted to improve water drainage, prevent flooding during rain events, and reduce maintenance costs. SOP Technologies designed and implemented a modular and highly customizable set of stormwater screens. These were then placed at the various stormwater outfalls around the facility.

The new screens provide a greater area for water flow, a multi-step water filtration process, and reduce the maintenance frequency of stormwater systems. The facility has taken an important step to Stop Ocean Pollution.

Links to ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Nurdle Patrol : Nurdle Patrol is a citizen science project run by the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve (Reserve) at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Texas. The Reserve brings together scientists, landowners, policy-makers, and the public to ensure that coastal management decisions benefit flora and fauna, water quality, and people.

This page from the University of Texas at Austin includes Microplastic & Nurdle Literature.

CBS This Morning - Plastic pellets known as nurdles are polluting our waterways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTW8OcmmR8M

Mongabay - Plastic pellet pollution can end through coordinated efforts, report shows https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/plastic-pellet-pollution-can-end-through-coordinated-efforts-report-shows/

Plastic Soup Foundation - Nieuwsuur TV item (English subtitles) https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/nurdles/

The Great Nurdle Hunt https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/the-problem.html

NOAA Ocean Service https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html

Video Music by Coma-Media from Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/users/coma-media-24399569/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=12099

Drop Inlet Basket Screen Analysis Coral Gables

96 pounds of debris captured during the past 110 days! The City of Coral Gables Public Works department prevented this stormwater debris and litter from ending up in canals and Biscayne Bay.

This SOP Technologies stormwater filter basket (storm drain drop inlet screen) collected 141 lbs since its installation on 3/9/21 (227 days ago). The basket was cleaned 3 times during this time period.

The city's pilot project of stormwater filters includes 7 curb filters and 3 baskets under grates.

City of Aventura Preventing Nutrient and Stormwater Pollution of Biscayne Bay

Three years ago, the inaugural Biscayne Bay Marine Health Summit took place at Florida International University’s Biscayne Bay Campus. The event included presentations and discussion groups comprised of state and local government agencies, environmental nonprofits, and solution providers all with the same mission in mind: to establish collaboration among diverse stakeholders, in order to create an effective Action Plan for reducing pollutants in Biscayne Bay as well as in Miami-Dade County’s canals and rivers.

At the Summit, the City of Aventura Public Works Stormwater Manager learned about ways to prevent stormwater pollution with the use of stormwater inlet filters provided by SOP Technologies. Similar to cities around the world, Aventura was looking for ways to address the massive volumes of leaves and litter that enter stormwater systems.

The first video below shows trash in a stormwater catch basin, and the second video demonstrates how stormwater filters keep trash out of the basin.

Inlet withOUT a stormwater filter

Inlet with a stormwater filter

A few months after the Summit, Aventura began a pilot project with several stormwater filters along 188th street and 213th street. The pilot project demonstrated three things:

1. Filters prevent pollution by blocking leaves (nutrients) and street litter from traveling into the stormwater system/pipes and flowing into the Bay.

2. Filters reduce the city’s maintenance costs by keeping leaves and litter on the road for low-cost cleanup using street sweepers (as opposed to vacuum truck cleaning of catch basins).

3. Filters prevent floods that are caused by clogged stormwater pipes.

After several months with the pilot project, the city decided to expand the filter implementation to all curb inlets throughout the city. Due to the city-wide implementation, the Public Works Department earned the 2019 “Branch Stormwater Project of the Year” from the South Florida branch of the American Public Works Association (APWA).

In September 2019, before the second Biscayne Bay Marine Health Summit: The Action Summit, additional data were collected and quantified for several of the stormwater filters in Aventura. The data as captured according to recommendations from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). The analysis estimates that, every year, the stormwater filters prevent over 10,000 pounds of leaves and street litter from reaching stormwater catch basins and the Biscayne Bay.

Within the next few years, Aventura is expected to recuperate its initial investment in the filters and have a net cost savings of tens of thousands of dollars within 10 years. All of this is happening while the city prevents its stormwater pipes from clogging and causing street flooding during rain events. The full analysis report can be downloaded below.

VIDEO OF A CURB FILTER IN AVENTURA, FL

Map with photos of stormwater filters