James Hill

Jim Hill is a vice president with ARCADIS, a Netherlands based engineering and design firm. With 28 years experience performing hydrogeologic investigations and implementing remedial solutions on contaminated properties, Mr. Hill has worked on projects in 35 states and 17 countries. Jim currently serves as the manager of ARCADIS’ multinational client program in the United States. Mr. Hill has a BS in Geology and Botany from the University of Wisconsin- Madison.

PRESENTATION SUMMARY

Sustainable Storm Water Management - Ford Motor Company, Heritage Project, Rouge Complex, Dearborn, Michigan

ARCADIS assisted Ford Motor Company in master planning and building design for the redevelopment of the 1200-acre Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Michigan. The objective of the Heritage Project was to transform an icon of 20^th century manufacturing into the model of a 21^st century sustainable manufacturing center. Ford pledged to make the Rouge Heritage project a testing ground for new ideas in sustainability, and to make the knowledge gained available to others at no cost.

A goal of the Heritage Project is to use sustainable storm water management practices to meet storm water quality requirements and to prevent flooding of facilities during a 100-year storm event. The 67-acre Phase I redevelopment entailed design and construction of a million square foot assembly plant, materials staging areas, the associated roadways and test track, and a product delivery center. As a part of the Phase 1 redevelopment, a 5-acre demonstration area using porous paving and porous underground storm water storage was constructed.

The Phase 1 area sustainable storm water management program is designed to capture and treat the entire runoff volume from a 10-year, 24-hour storm event (a 3.1-inch rainfall), with 85% reduction of suspended solids and numerous other aggressive water treatment objectives. To achieve this goal in a cost-effective and sustainable manner, ARCADIS used underground storage with metered discharge to constructed treatment wetlands. Underground storage allows use of the site surface for non-storm water functions such a parking and landscaping and the treatment wetlands provides a method to achieve polishing water treatment with low capital and operating costs. The treatment wetland units occupy less than 3% of the land surface, providing a high level of treatment at a low cost.