After bench testing the water and working out the right chemical and the right dose rate, we pulled a sprinkler back and forth across the lake (see images above) whilst pumping to make sure we got an even dispersion rate. As we drew our ‘contraption’ across the body of water, the visual improvement in water quality became increasingly obvious. “Too Easy,” said Paul Hodge, Erosion Control’s Operations Manager, Waikato Region, but, as it turns out, our highly cost-effective solution made for one happy client. To check out a video of our McGyver-esque brainchild in action and get the full gen on the Ruakura project, please click here. And, yes, we did get some pretty strange looks as we exited Kmart loaded with 40 pool noodles!

Since winning the 2016 IEVA award for Excellence in Innovation, Contribution and Education to the Sediment and Erosion Control Industry, Erosion Control’s Floc Boxes™ are to be found on sites all over New Zealand and Australia and are at the forefront of our drive to help settle out sediment from site run-off to prevent it entering the surrounding water system. But have you ever wondered how they work? Well, the principle is pretty straightforward:

• The catchment tray discharges collected rainfall to a header tank
• The header tank is designed to simulate the runoff hydrograph and discharges water to the displacement tank accordingly
• When the displacement tank, which floats in the flocculant reservoir becomes sufficiently filled with water, reagent is displaced through the flocculant reservoir’s outlet point, flows to the dosing point and out into the sedimentation pond

That’s it in a nutshell. You can download the brochure here, or, if visual’s more your thing, you can check out the process by clicking here to watch this cool little video.