Project Specifics

Following the installation of four vegetated media filters to remove pollutants from stormwater runoff at The Boeing Company’s Developmental Center in Tukwila, Washington, Geosyntec designed and installed a suite of internet-connected sensors to control submersible pumps and monitor the media filters’ performance. This work included monitoring soil moisture, soil temperature, ponding depth of water above the media, discharge through the filters, and rainfall at the site. Real-time data were aggregated and visualized on a web-based dashboard where users could explore the performance of the filters and toggle a pump to deliver stormwater from an underground vault to the filters. The system also allows users to receive automated emails and text messages when sensors record values above user-defined thresholds.

Geosyntec Scope of Services

The Boeing Company contracted with Geosyntec through Stewardship Partners, a local environmental nonprofit that advocates for improved freshwater quality in the Puget Sound area. With the media filters in place, Geosyntec built a web-based platform through which the site conditions and performance of the media filters could be monitored and controlled.

Notable Accomplishments

Geosyntec’s notable accomplishments include the following:

• Worked with the site’s facilities team to deliver power to a remote location within the large footprint of the site
• Planned, installed, and calibrated all on-site instrumentation, including test cells, piping, and continuous hydraulic-monitoring instrumentation
• Developed a monitoring dashboard to display real-time site data, including rainfall intensity, runoff-flow rates, test-cell-flow rates, ponding depths, and soil moisture
• Used programmable data loggers to trigger a submersible pump to convey site runoff from a tidally influenced vault to the testing system only during periods when runoff is discharging from the site and when tidal water is not present in the vault
• Analyzed monitoring data to confirm water-quality effectiveness of the four test cells and to develop hydraulic data to support our full-scale design of the treatment system

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