Sarasota installs stormwater filter to reduce red tide

Local stormwater utilities have set a trap for trash and nutrients that foster red tide to keep them from reaching Sarasota Bay.

A uniquely-designed baffle box filters organic matter, garbage and sediment pouring into a three-chamber filtration system placed underneath 10th Street near the Centennial Park and Boat Ramp in April. The box was intended to protect the boat basin, which was hydrologically dredged of about 20,000 tons of silt earlier this year.

It will also help to keep nitrogen and nutrients that exacerbate red tide blooms out of coastal waters.

The design of the baffle box, which is 24 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 17 feet deep, is one of a kind, according to Sarasota senior utilities engineer William Nichols.