Culver City Gets Full Stormwater Treatment

No one wants a dirty ocean.

It’s harmful for the environment, wildlife, and humans. That’s why California is downright serious about stormwater. Every time it rains, all the motor oils, lawn fertilizers, and bug pesticides sitting stagnant on our roads and rooftops wash away into the storm drains and ultimately our waterways.

Add in California’s beautiful coastal cities and towns and all waterways typically lead to one place: The Pacific Ocean.

 

To combat stormwater pollutions, California’s regional water quality control boards monitor and enforce regulations requiring municipalities to comply with Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for pollutants and Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit obligations. So when Culver City needed to widen it’s main thoroughfare, it had to modernize its stormwater infrastructure to capture urban runoff from 334 watershed acres for reuse.

Full Treatment

After landing the Culver City contract, Ortiz Enterprises, a construction company based in Southern California, tapped Jensen Precast to deliver the full stormwater solution.

“There was a host of products Jensen provided on this project,” says Chris Purdie, Sales Operations Manager for Jensen Precast. “Two Jensen Deflective Separators, which is a hydrodynamic separator stormwater treatment device, plus a very large underground stormwater retention system utilizing Jensen’s precast concrete reinforced box culver, and also a pump station.”

The products work in unison treating, capturing, and retaining stormwater.

“Stormwater is initially collected at the street and diverted down into the Jensen Deflective Separators,” Purdie says. “The JDS units work to remove trash, debris, and sediments from the stormwater as a pretreatment device, capturing everything down to the size of a match head. That water then makes its way to the underground retention system, which has approximately 2.6 million gallons of available stormwater storage.”

Not only is stormwater being pretreated and captured, it’s also being reused for irrigation on the land above the retention system and nearby parks.

“There is a heavy reuse activity on this project,” Purdie says. “We’re capturing the stormwater, we’re pretreating it, then we are using it for different things.”

Disaster Mitigation

Another crucial component in this hulking underground stormwater system is its ability to prevent flooding in extreme weather events.

“In densely populated areas we no longer have grassy swales and natural ways to manage our stormwater,” Purdie says. “So this is a great way to do it, underground and out of sight in a way that protects life and property while also treating the stormwater and creating better water quality in our watershed.”

Watershed improvement, flood prevention, and irrigation reuse are a few reasons why Culver City decided to update its infrastructure. A safer and aesthetically pleasing pedestrian median with a wide bike lane and vegetation is the cherry on top.

 

Environmentally Compliant

Now, Culver City is environmentally compliant, more prepared for torrential downpours, and proud to provide their citizens a widened street with pedestrian median.

“Projects like ours not only captures valuable stormwater runoff for reuse, but also beautifies our community,” says Dr. Daniel Lee, former Mayor of Culver City. “In addition, we serve as a positive example of multibenefit, multi-partner stormwater capture project that increases water supply, improves water quality, and provides community enhancements.”

Jensen Precast specializes in large scale stormwater systems and offers a full suite of stormwater solutions. From small coalescing units geared toward a car wash to large scale complete stormwater systems featuring multiple products like the ones in Culver City, Jensen does them all.

“Jensen Precast is building a strong reputation in the California stormwater system market,” says Jeff McDermott, Project Manager for Ortiz Enterprises. “We decided to go with their products and services to accelerate the installation along Culver Boulevard, and they came through for us. Jensen has a good team in place, and they’re great to work with on projects of this size and scope.”

See the complete lineup of Jensen Stormwater Solutions here. Request a custom design quote or schedule a lunch and learn event for your team.