Stormwater Filtration Media Committee
Craig Fairbaugh, M.ASCE
Billions of dollars are spent annually to install and maintain stormwater filtration media systems in the United States that protect our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans from pollution. Systems that utilize filtration media include green infrastructure practices such as bioretention, high-rate biofiltration (>100”/hr media infiltration rates), and also non-vegetated practices such as sand filters and high-rate media filters. Despite extensive research documented in journals, conference papers, and industry publications, practitioners still lack a single cohesive resource that synthesizes guidance on the selection, design, and performance of stormwater filtration media.
To address this gap, the EWRI Stormwater Filtration Media committee is developing a comprehensive Technical Report for publication by ASCE with a target for release in January 2027. This report is intended to support engineers, regulators and researchers by consolidating over 2 decades of experience designing, implementing, evaluating and maintaining media filtration systems. It will examine the physical, chemical, and biological factors which influence water quality and hydraulic performance, reliability, and system longevity.
The Technical Report is organized into 7 chapters, including topics such as pollutants (sources, impacts, speciation, and recommendations), properties of media, types of media (inorganic, organic, amendments), sizing and design, and maintenance.
The report introduces a framework for media selection and application applicable to both stormwater treatment and infiltration applications. This framework is incorporated into three tools intended to be used in order: 1) a stormwater infiltration feasibility tool (SIFT) 2) a media selection guide (MSG), and 3) quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) guidance. The SIFT evaluates site conditions like pollutant loading and vadose zone characteristics to determine whether infiltration is appropriate and to define pretreatment needs. If pollutant loading is high and the vadose zone treatment capacity is low, the user is guided to the MSG to select a media for protecting groundwater quality. If infiltration is infeasible, the user is guided directly to the MSG. The MSG compiles field monitoring data from the International BMP Database, peer reviewed literature and technical reports to provide summary statistics of treatment performance for bioretention, amended bioretention, high-rate biofiltration, sand filters, amended sand filters, and high-rate media filters. The MSG enables targeted selection of media to meet water quality goals for total suspended solids, total phosphorus, total nitrogen, total and dissolved zinc, and total and dissolved copper. Lastly, the QA/QC guidance synthesizes media testing and analytical methods from over 30 stormwater manuals to ensure that selected media perform as intended from sourcing through installation and operation.
Together, this technical report and accompanying tools translate decades of research and field experience into a practical, decision-oriented framework that improves the consistency and reliability of stormwater filter system design.
For more information and to participate in the committee, please contact the committee Chair, Craig Fairbaugh ([email protected]), Vice-Chair, Curtis Hinman ([email protected]), or Secretary, Amanda Hess ([email protected]).