Aug 9, 2007 7:33 pm US/Eastern
UNH Parking Lot Could Pave Way To Cleaner Water
by Peg Rusconi
DURHAM, NH (WBZ) ―
Most university research takes place in labs and libraries. At the University of New Hampshire, it's happening in a parking lot.
And what they're building on land could have a big effect on water.
A crew is building a parking lot on the UNH campus. But the project is less about managing traffic than about managing storm water that pools up on pavement and runs off, untreated, into catch basins.
"It's the No. 1 contaminant, the No. 1 cause of pollution on coastal waters," said Robert Roseen of the UNH Stormwater Center.
On the surface, the parking lot won't look like any other of its size in New Hampshire. It is paved with pervious concrete -- a porous layer, set over gravel, which sits atop a thick layer of sand.
"During a typical rain event, all the water is moving right through the parking lot, into the natural materials underneath," Roseen said.
With the new pavement, water drains through the surface to be filtered underneath. It's a dramatic difference from common asphalt.
"Basically it returns the water into the ground and helps maintain that balance," Roseen said.,"for both drinking water as well as base flow for the rivers that support the wildlife."
The reason we haven't seen much of this in New England is that people have wondered how it would perform in our climate, with its freezing and thawing. That's why the UNH parking lot is so significant.
"People here in the state, or in the New England states and come and look at it, touch it and feel it, put water through it and as it goes through the seasons, see for themselves," said Dale Fisher of PCI Systems, which is contributing materials and installation costs to the UNH project.
The parking lot is essentially a research project -- it's studded with monitors and probes. It will need regular vacuuming to keep the porous surface unclogged.
If successful, t could pave the way for cleaner water.
The material is expected to coast about twice as much to install as conventional asphalt, but it's also expected to last twice as long.
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