Shaw & Sons Launches Oceansafe

In response to California’s Storm Water Resource Planning Act (SB-790) that took effect January 1, Shaw & Sons, an Costa Mesa construction company, has launched a patented storm water management system that captures, cleanses and recycles storm water and urban runoff from parking facilities, plazas and other hardscape structures in a simple, cost-effective manner.   Called Oceansafe™, the system was designed by Costa Mesa-based Shaw & Sons and mimics nature’s cleansing process and meets the needs of architects, developers and owners who are designing and building more environmentally sensitive projects, especially in urban areas.

SB-790 allows municipalities to tap funds from two of the state's existing bond funds for projects that reduce or reuse storm water, recharge the groundwater supply, create green spaces and enhance wildlife habitats. The two bonds are Proposition 50, the $3.44-billion water security bond passed by California voters in 2002, and Proposition 84, the $5.4-billion safe drinking water bond passed in 2006. 

"The passage of SB 790 is a milestone in improving the sustainability of California's water resources because it will help local municipalities begin to use storm water as a local water source,” says Andy Lipkis, TreePeople Founder and President. “This will make us more water resilient in times of drought and climate change and will also reduce the L.A. region’s greenhouse gas contributions. When Southern California harvests rain that falls on our cities, we require less energy to pump water from distant sources.”

Lee Shaw, president of Oceansafe™ Inc., a subsidiary of Shaw & Sons, said the Oceansafe™ system can be installed as part of hardscape structures such as parking facilities, plazas, sports arenas, sidewalks, and roadways and is almost 100% effective in collecting and recycling water runoff.  Oceansafe™ also collects, stores, filters, and recharges local groundwater tables, saving water utilities the need to import thousands of acre feet of water, he noted.

As an added benefit, a sustainability consultant has calculated that Oceansafe™ has the potential for a real estate project to earn up to 13 LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) credits with the correct design and implementation of the system, a significant addition for any development pursuing LEED certification.

 “Oceansafe™ addresses many of the storm water and urban runoff issues contained within SB-790,” said Shaw.  “Oceansafe™ is a more effective storm water containment and management system that can be installed at any facility to address non source-point storm water runoff. Our tests show that for so-called ‘first flush’ storm water containment, it’s the most effective system yet developed.”  First flush is the first ¾ of an inch of water generated from a rain storm or other runoff and is considered the most critical to capture and cleanse because it contains most of the particles and other elements that are harmful to the environment.