The Columbia Public Works Department had a problem.
The department had too many employees for its small parking lot. Workers would park along the street, disturbing residents living close to the department. At the end of the parking lot was an underground detention center, which was used to drain water into local creeks and rivers in the 1980s and has not been used since.
To make way for more cars in the lot, as well as solve a drainage problem, a company called PaveDrain offered to help. This company is the inventor of a new porous pavement that drains water through each brick. The water then goes through a layer of gravel which lies just underneath the pavement. Under the gravel are Atlantis Storage Triple Tanks which are covered in fabric. These tanks filter the sediment out of the water. It then goes through a pipe and out to creeks and rivers.
The Public Works Department is paying for all of this through a 319 Grant which was given to Boone County in part by Joe Machens Dealerships and the City of Columbia Stormwater Utility. "The City is retrofitting a somewhat industrial facility with Stormwater Best Management Paractices," said Erin Kelly who is the civil engineer working on the project.