The stores in Cleveland's newest shopping center, Steelyard Commons, will look familiar - Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot.

But look closely around the massive parking lot and you will see something new: Ground-level storm water scrubbers, according to a recent report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

What makes these bioretention basins different from traditional storm-water systems is that they are designed to filter the pollutants that rainwater collects as it washes across a parking lot.

The lot will be graded so the rainwater drains toward the bioretention basins. As it is absorbed into the ground, the water will pass through mulch, soil and sand to remove oil, grease, antifreeze and other pollutants.

The water then will drain into perforated storm pipes, which, in this case, dump into the Cuyahoga River and eventually Lake Erie, the source of Greater Cleveland's drinking water.

"We're trying it on this project as a prototype to see how they work and function, and see how we could include them in future projects," said Richard Carlisle, vice president and director of development for First Interstate Properties Ltd. of Beachwood, the developer.

Three bioretention ponds will collect rainwater runoff from 91 acres of Steelyard Commons parking lots, store rooftops, sidewalks and roadways. It's one of a handful of developments, such as the Cleveland Art Museum expansion and a trail that is part of the Fulton Road Bridge project, in which bioretention basins are planned.

While only a small number of the construction projects under way in Greater Cleveland use the basins now, they are attracting interest among developers and engineers as a way to control and clean up storm water, said Todd Houser, storm-water specialist with the Cuyahoga County Soil and Water Conservation District.

"We're breaking the train of traditional thinking in how we approach storm-water management," Houser said. "We're changing gears. We're not just looking at it for flood control, but water quality treatment."

While new to Ohio, bioretention ponds have been used in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia for about a decade to protect water quality in Chesapeake Bay.

Bioretention ponds could start popping up everywhere, even along roads, because the Ohio Department of Transportation has developed criteria for them.

In two years, all communities with a state-issued storm water permit, which is nearly every community in Cuyahoga and Summit counties, will be required to ensure that all construction sites that disturb one or more acres specify how their runoff will not degrade water, Houser said.

Source: CPD