Upgrading your company’s parking lot can now be done in an eco-friendly way that could help smooth zoning restrictions popping up these days to control stormwater runoff.

Normally parking lots are treated as any roadway or traditional rooftop — they’re all impervious surfaces that create stormwater runoff problems. The water hits the asphalt, grabs a bit of dirt, some oil and grease and other chemicals, and then carries all that muck into waterways.

But now EPA’s testing low impact development (LID) design features that can capture stormwater as it hits the parking lot. The runoff flows through the new porous pavement designs and percolates into the soil right away, under the parking lot.

The agency has built a 43,000 square foot parking lot at its Edison, N.J., research lab to test three permeable pavement systems — porous asphalt, porous concrete, and interlocking concrete paver blocks. The agency’s also testing use of rain gardens and other vegetative designs. The test includes three sections of traditional asphalt parking designs as a control group.

A video demonstration on EPA’s Web site shows very clearly how quickly the porous pavement can capture a flood of water. The water hits the pavement and is instantly absorbed. This quick capture is the key to controlling stormwater runoff, which is now the nation’s top water quality problem.

An explanation of the porous pavement project is available at EPA’s Web site.

While EPA tests these designs, California-based Shaw & Sons, Inc., a concrete construction firm, is marketing its porous pavement services. The company says its Oceansafe product line recycles nearly 100% of the rainwater. Shaw & Sons builds LID porous pavements for parking, plazas, sports arenas, sidewalks and some roadways.

Tags: Oceansafe, porous pavement, recycled stormwater, Shaw & Sons, stormwater