PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dr. Roger Babcock, Water Resources Research Center/Civil Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa (UH)

FUNDING AGENCY:

StreetVac Corp.

PROJECT PERIOD:

05/01/05 - 04/30/07

BACKGROUND

Dr. Babcock is evaluating the performance of a unique commercial device for reducing vehicular pollution. The Honolulu-based company 3K Technologies has introduced "StreetVac^TM" pollution sorption pads that can be mounted within the wheel wells of vehicles where they are designed to capture pollutants generated by vehicular traffic. The resin-impregnated filter pads used in the StreetVac system collects pollutants emitted by vehicles and those already present on roads.

Motor vehicles represent a source of considerable amounts of pollution to our air and water. In its report on Indicators of the Environmental Impacts of Transportation (EPA 230-R-96-009, October 1996, http://www.epa.gov/otaq/transp/96indict.pdf). The US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Policy, Planning, and Evaluation states;

"Direct vehicle deposits are a major source of particulates and heavy metals: settleable exhaust, copper from brake pads, tire and asphalt wear deposits, and drips of oil, grease, antifreeze, hydraulic fluids, and cleaning agents. According to the American Automobile Manufacturers Association (AAMA, 1990) an estimated 46 percent of vehicles on U.S. roads leak hazardous fluids¹. Indirectly, vehicles also contribute by carrying solids from parking lots, urban roadways, construction sites, farms, and dirt roads. More than 95 percent of the solids on roadways originate from sources other than the vehicles themselves."(Barrett et al., 1993²)

From the perspective of those of us concerned with water quality protection, vehicle-generated pollution is a matter of grave concern. Particularly here in Hawaii where runoff from roadways is almost immediately transported to the oceans. The significance of pollution in our nearshore recreational waters hardly needs to be emphasized in this tourism-dependent state.

According to Jeffrey Krantz, President of 3K Technologies "Tests conducted in Hawaii and Nevada, have demonstrated that the StreetVac™ technology system traps vapors, aerosols, metals, and rainwater runoff particulates. It facilitates what he calls the "virtual vacuuming" of the roadway, collecting contaminants in filter media for periodic and environmentally safe disposal.

"The device, according to Certified Industrial Hygienist Kerry Tomayose, Industrial Hygiene Technologies, LLC, Honolulu, "readily absorbs Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (oil), and it collects metals through mechanical entrapment." Tomayose characterized hydrocarbon absorption as "dramatically significant."

GOAL AND DESIGN OF STUDY

Dr. Babcock's research will assess the pollutants collected by the StreetVac system, evaluate the collection efficiencies, and assist in product development of the technology.