For the 2023-2024 academic year, The Greenway Foundation worked with a fantastic team of seniors from Colorado School of Mines on a local water pollution issue: road salts runoff. Road salts are part are an integral part of the road safety plans for the snowy and icy months in Colorado. However, when the snow melts it flows into the storm drains, the salt goes with it, and flows directly into our freshwater ecosystems.
The students dedicated two semesters to research, field work, and lab testing to design a salt removal system. Their hard work resulted in an innovative removal structure that could be placed after a hydrodynamic separator or in a standard storm drain, and safely remove chloride via an anion exchange resin. In the picture to the right, the full team is pictured collecting grab systems from a storm drain in Golden after a large snow event!
The team presented all of their hard work and suggestions for next steps to TGF’s Board of Directors and other partners in April 2024. Their final presentation can be found here.
Big thank you to the team for working with TGF this year:
Rachel Coffey
Sydney Fagan
Emma Leszczak
Dylan Tepedelen
Thank you also to Colorado Water Conservation Board for providing grant funding for this project!
For more information about this project or for contact information for the team members, please email info@greenwayfoundation.org
Charting Our Course: The Greenway Foundation’s Strategic Planning Expedition