Next-Generation Stormwater Management: Pipelife Designs Automated Solution for STEICO Production Site

In a changing climate, highly efficient stormwater management systems are crucial to protect industrial spaces from flood damage. Pipelife Poland's team is proud to have designed and supplied a state-of-the-art smart rainwater management solution for the new STEICO production site in Gromadka municipality. Beyond flood protection, the system offers advantages such as water reuse for production processes, reduced rainwater discharge costs, and local rainwater infiltration preserving Gromadka's groundwater table.

_{Valued Partnership: The Importance of Stormwater Management in Industrial Areas}

With extreme weather events across Europe becoming more common, owners and developers of industrial and commercial sites pay increased attention to efficient stormwater management.

STEICO — one of Europe's major suppliers of ecological construction products —is currently building an 18.6-ha production site in Gromadka municipality, Southern Poland. Located in central Europe, the new production site will play a crucial role in supplying STEICO's markets with wood fiber mats and insulation boards.

Ensuring efficient protection from flood damage at the new site is integral to the extensive project. Furthermore, the customer was interested in harvesting and using rainwater to support sustainable manufacturing practices. 

A few years ago, Pipelife Poland had already designed and supplied an end-to-end stormwater management solution for STEICO's production plant in Czarna Woda. As the customer was highly satisfied with the service and the quality of the system supplied, reaching out to Pipelife regarding the upcoming plant in Gromadka felt like a logical choice.

_{Combining Flood Protection and Rainwater Reuse}

The construction of the Gromadka plant started in mid-2021. The large building area and the importance of the production site required industry-leading expertise and an individually tailored approach. 

The system was expected to effectively manage stormwater across the entire complex while seamlessly tackling rainwater retention, filtration and reuse for production processes as well as local infiltration of surplus rainwater. 

To address the customer's needs, Pipelife Poland's Technical Consultancy department came up with a bespoke solution entailing an extensive drainage network, two large-capacity underground rainwater retention tanks, as well as a digital monitoring and control system. 

_{Client-Centric Design}

Pipelife's turnkey solution for STEICO covers a 17-hectare area and envisions two distinct pathways — one for the rainwater collected from rooftops, which can be easily reused for production purposes, and another for the runoff from parking lots, roads and other potentially contaminated areas. 

• The rainwater collected from the rooftops will be diverted to two HDPE retention tanks with volumes of 1100 m3 and 50 m3. Both tanks are equipped with pumping stations that will provide technical water for the plant's needs as well as a digital system for monitoring and controlling the water levels. Both retention tanks were designed according to the client's specific needs, addressing variations in the treatment levels necessary for the collected rainwater to be used in various production processes.

• The rainwater collected from parking lots and roads after cleaning will be directed straight to the infiltration reservoirs built from Stormbox II attenuation and soakaway crates. Three underground infiltration fields have been installed across the plant's territory, constructed from 7,000 Stormbox II crates in total with a combined volume of 3024 m3. In case of extremely heavy rainfall, surplus water from the rooftops can be diverted to infiltration reservoirs as well.  

_{When Rainwater Management Becomes Smart}

The extensive stormwater management system at STEICO will also benefit from fully automated monitoring thanks to the integration of Pipelife SmartHub — a cloud-based solution. The system is equipped with Pipelife smart meters that measure the water level in the retention tanks. All data from the meters will be transferred to the SmartHub platform, allowing the plant's system operators to access crucial data 24/7 via their laptop or mobile device. 

_{Looking Forward: The Advantages of Automated Stormwater Management} 

As the installation of the stormwater management system has been completed, its full integration with Pipelife SmartHub and the necessary training sessions for STEICO's staff will be carried out in the first quarter of 2024 — in compliance with the completion of the production site itself. 

Apart from ensuring efficient protection from flood damage, another key advantage of the system lies in the water reuse for production processes and the elimination of additional costs associated with discharging rainwater into the local sewage network. Equally important is the local infiltration of rainwater to preserve the water balance within Gromadka's vicinity.