STEP initiated a 3 year study in 2005 at Seneca College’s campus in King City evaluated the effectiveness of permeable pavement and bio-swales under southern Ontario climate conditions.  This site was also later visited as part of STEP’s Evaluation of Permeable Pavements in Cold Climates.  The parking lot is divided into three sections; one with permeable interlocking concrete pavers (PICP) and two with conventional asphalt.  One of the asphalt parking sections drained to a bioretention swale.

For the purposes of research, the parking lot was divided into three equal areas. On one area, the asphalt was removed and resurfaced using Permeable Interlocking Concrete Pavers. On a second area, a bio-retention swale was constructed at the drainage edge of the asphalt to treat runoff from the existing pavement. The middle area remained unaltered and served as a control area for the study.  Power to operate the monitoring equipment is supplied by one 300w Southwest Windpower H40 wind turbine and 3 Sharp solar panels (1 x 165w and 2 x 170w).  The wind turbine and solar panels are regulated using two controllers (one for the solar panels and one for the turbine) and an inverter to generate 12, 24, and 120 VDC. A battery bank consisting of 24 VDC is used to store generated energy and has a capacity of 1000 Ah which would provide just over 9 days of system operation with no energy input.