Wildlife_habitat

28:14 Department of Ecology. On the upper right image, far right, are the vector truck that goes around and cleans and vacuums out buildup that happens through our stormwater lines, so we keep them clean so they can build up and if not cleaned out, maintained properly, can make things worse. The lower right is our T2 stormwater pond. This is actually very similar to a Graddix box, but on a much larger scale and in the ground. Also layers of media filter that filter the water out. The T2 pond was actually a first of its kind put into an industrial setting when it was installed around 2010. And then the last image I want to focus on is the far left lower, which is our floating treatment wetlands, which I'm going to get into a little bit more here on the next slide.

29:10 But before we go there, I'd like you to focus on the root system of those plants, because that's key to the floating treatment wetlands. So here's an update on our floating treatment wetlands project. So this was actually a pilot project that was installed in 2014. It was the first of its kind amongst ports and really was just a concept back then that Matt had in his head and got some materials and kind of designed it on the fly. And it's worked very well for over 10 years now. And the concept is relatively simple. So those masses of roots you saw in the previous slide, below those plants, they grow down into the water. And as they grow down, they produce what's called a biofilm, which is essentially a slimy

30:05 film of microorganisms that work to absorb materials to grow the plant, right? In this case, as the stormwater passes through those, the root systems, that biofilm, that slimy kind of gunk down there, actually the pollutants, the heavy metals, the sediment all stick and attach to that root system, which then is absorbed into the plant and removed from the water.