This paper presents the results of a study on the effectiveness of porous overlays on urban highways. Permeable Friction Course (PFC) is a layer of porous asphalt applied to the top of conventional asphalt highways at a thickness of around 50 mm. PFC is often installed for safety and noise benefits, and is being seen as an emerging technology for meeting environmental requirements for stormwater discharge. The first objective of the study was to determine the impact of porous asphalt on the quality of stormwater runoff on highways with a curb and gutter drainage system. The quality of highway stormwater runoff was monitored before and after the installation of PFC on an eight-lane divided highway in the Austin, Texas area for 2 years. Observed concentrations of total suspended solids from PFC are 92% lower than those in runoff from the conventional pavement. Concentration reductions are also observed for nitrate/nitrite and total amounts of phosphorus, copper, lead, and zinc. The data shows that the results with curb and gutter are consistent with past results where runoff sheet flowed onto vegetated shoulders. The effect of two different binder compositions is also compared, showing an increase in zinc when recycled rubber is used. The second objective focuses on the drainage capabilities of PFC. While porous overlays can reduce stormwater accumulation on roadways, capacity at high rainfall intensities is limited. Installing subgrade underdrains within PFC could further improve stormwater conveyance. This research attempts to model the hydraulic profile of runoff as it approaches an underdrain with varying flow rates and grades. The results could assist TxDOT in the sizing and configuration of drains based on rainfall intensity and roadway geometry. / text

This report uncovers relationships between water quality and quality of life (QOL) through urban design. It shows that Smart Growth (a type of urban design) is a reasonable management practice for stormwater that can also positively affect our quality of life. This study is meant to support and inspire further research on how to link quantitative measurements of QOL with quantitative measurements of water quality through urban design characteristics. The report will introduce an ongoing study by PhD candidate, Suzanne Pierce, as her and her team currently combine water quantity/quality science with decision making. They are using the stakeholder process I served on, The Barton Springs Regional Water Quality Plan 2005, as a test bed for their creation. My hope is that this study will serve as a collection of data that Pierce’s group can draw from as they get closer to illustrating design choices for stakeholders as well as linking those choices to water quality and QOL. / text

This research identified and evaluated possible uses of environmental monitoring data collected and reported by industrial facilities under the Clean Water Act requirements and determined whether the current regulatory system supported any of those uses. Federal policies and state-level policies in the United States, Florida, and California were evaluated in order to determine whether the current regulatory system supported any of the identified uses. Monitoring programs and currently available monitoring data were evaluated from Hillsborough County, Florida, and Los Angeles County, California, from the perspective of 1) the current implementation of the monitoring program, and 2) perfect implementation under full compliance with the monitoring program. Four possible uses for monitoring data were identified by this research: (1) identification of high polluting facilities within a given jurisdiction, (2) assessment of pollutant load to receiving waterbodies, (3) documentat ion of improvement over time in the amount of pollutants discharged from a given industrial facility, (4) self-evaluation purposes, such as identifying on-site pollutant sources, adapting pollution prevention efforts, and evaluating the monitoring protocol. The research conducted a telephone survey and evaluated industrial facilities' reported analytical monitoring data. Telephone questionnaires were administered to 63 industrial facilities, and analytical monitoring data were obtained from industrial facilities in Hillsborough County, Florida and Los Angeles County California. The representativeness, sampling frequency and variation in the industrial facilities' analytical monitoring data do not assist in the identification of high polluting facilities within a given jurisdiction nor provide for documentation of facilities' improvements. Pollutant loads to receiving watebodies can not be assessed through the use of industrial facilities' analytical monitoring data because of the sampl e measurement, variation, and sample frequency of the data. Therefore, these uses can not be supported under current implementation/current data submitted or under perfect compliance. However, the telephone survey revealed facility operators are attempting to use the results from monitoring for self evaluation purposes.

Preliminary reconnaissance undertaken in summer 2013 identified the scale of stormwater management issues in Xiamen, having frequent storm events that overwhelm the stormwater and sewer infrastructure resulting in widespread flooding. This research explored the role that green facilities play in addressing stormwater issues through the inquiry of Low Impact Development strategies and techniques. From a long-term perspective, green infrastructure planning and implementation is inevitably linked with strong education programs, rational stormwater codes and regulations, a variety of financing and incentives, as well as an integrated and competent administration system. This research presents a design proposal for green infrastructure retrofit for a selected study block in the central area of Xiamen to help guide water sensitive urban design and development in the future. Seven recommendations based on the synthesis of the literature review, key-informant interviews, built-project studies and the retrofit design proposal are proposed. This document will be submitted to Xiamen Urban Planning & Design Institute for considerations to be integrated in city master planning policy and zoning codes and standards as needed and to inform a demonstration project to help advance long-term strategies and recommendations. / October 2015

This report examined efforts to manage combined sewage overflows and create effective stormwater management plans. To provide background on the issue, a brief history of sewage management was provided, along with the legal history regarding water quality, sewage and CSOs, effects of CSOs and current green infrastructure methods for dealing with CSOs. The report then compared the efforts of three cities--Portland, Oregon; Philadelphia, PA; and Chicago, IL--to improve water quality and manage CSOs and stormwater. From the examination of the efforts of these cities the author derived a list of ten recommended elements for a CSO/stormwater management plan. These recommended elements were then used to evaluate New York City's recently released sustainable stormwater management plan and its prospects for success. / text

Although wood floor production does not use water in the production process, water consumptionis related to cleaning and washing of floor and machineries in different steps of the process line,which generate a number of small flows that are highly polluted.Besides this, the industry has a need to store large amounts of wood outside to be able to havecontinuity in the production. This takes up a lot of space outdoors and once it rains the water thathas been in contact with wood, oil and metals forms stormwater, which transports pollutants.Stormwater has for a long time not been seen as a problem and has often been discharged intorecipient water bodies without any treatment. During cold seasons, this also involves snowmelt thatcan transport high concentrations of different pollutants.This report describes the composition of process- and stormwater from a wood floor industry inNybro, Sweden regarding parameters such as COD, phenol, tannin and lignin. The concentrationsof phenols in the stormwater were found in a range considered toxic to marine life.Regarding the process water, high values was found for COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) and forother substances and elements potentially toxic (e.g. formaldehyde, wood resins, detergents andmetals). If these waters are directly released to a sewage treatment plant without any pre-treatmentprocess it can disturb the plant treatment efficiency; if released to a recipient water body, it cancause oxygen deficiency and consequently, death to marine life.The possibility of reducing the levels of pollutants through the use of electrocoagulation has beenexamined in this study. This has been done both for process water and stormwater from the woodfloor industry. A 250 ml batch unit for electrocoagulation EC was setup with iron (Fe) andaluminium (Al) electrodes for treating process water and stormwater. The results show that the ECprocess can reduce COD concentration from stormwater at least 70%. On the other hand, lessefficiency of EC for treating process water was observed.A method for simulating a snowmelt period in lab scale was also developed. Snow collected from awood floor industry was melted according to real temperature and the quality of these samples hasthen been compared to on-site samples of stormwater / Development of an integrated approach for industrial wastewater and stormwater management in the wood-industry sector

Bioretention gardens are stormwater management practices that offer numerous water quantity and quality benefits. However, previous studies have reported inconsistent removal of nitrogen and phosphorous in these systems. The first phase of this research involved the construction and monitoring of ten vegetated, mesoscale, bioretention cells in a field setting to provide a comparison of the performance of five alternative designs intended to provide nutrient removal. Results indicated that concentrations of total nitrogen and total phosphorous may be reduced by up to 53 and 79%, respectively, in specially designed bioretention gardens. In the second phase of the research, a GIS-based site selection tool was used to identify areas suitable for bioretention implementation based on physical site requirements. Applying this tool to selected urban catchments demonstrated that bioretention gardens may be integrated into existing urban landscapes on a scale large enough to accommodate runoff and associated nutrient loads from small (<15mm) storms.

Bioretention systems are best management practices (BMPs) that make use of the biogeochemical processes within a forest-type ecosystem to provide at-source stormwater retention and pollutant removal. Laboratory studies and field monitoring have shown great potential for water quantity and quality control through the use of bioretention, but reported nutrient removal has been inconsistent between these systems. In particular, the processes involved in the cycling of phosphorus within bioretention systems are not clearly understood. Some studies report high phosphorus removal from bioretention systems, while phosphorus leaching was observed in other systems. Phosphorus is a macronutrient required by all forms of life. It is also an important water pollutant, as it controls algal growth in most freshwater environments. High phosphorus loadings to these aquatic ecosystems can lead to eutrophication, which has significant ecological, environmental and economical impacts. The Bioretention Phosphorus Removal Model (BPRM), an event-based one-dimensional finite difference model, was developed to simulate phosphorus removal in bioretention systems. The model includes four completely-mixed layers to simulate hydrologic processes as well as both soluble and particulate phosphorus transport in a bioretention system. Model processes include evapotranspiration, infiltration, overflow, exfiltration to native soils, underdrain discharge, soluble phosphorus sorption and vegetative uptake, and particulate phosphorus capture. Monitoring data collected by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) at a bioretention system installed on Seneca College’s King City campus, in Ontario, Canada, was used to evaluate the performance of BPRM. The model was found to overestimate total underdrain discharge volumes, but total phosphorus concentration and mass predictions were found to be useful for design purposes. BPRM correctly predicted phosphorus leaching from the Seneca College bioretention system for all storm events considered but one. The model can be used by practitioners to evaluate the potential for phosphorus leaching in a bioretention system. A detailed sensitivity analysis revealed that BPRM phosphorus transport predictions are particularly sensitive to the drainage properties of bioretention soils, which highlights the importance of hydrologic transport processes for water quality control in bioretention systems. Modelling results suggested that soluble phosphorus desorption from bioretention soils was responsible for phosphorus leaching from the Seneca College bioretention system. / Thesis (Master, Civil Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-25 17:00:03.173

No description available.

The quality of recreational and shellfishing waters has historically been monitored using commensal, allochthonous bacteria shed in feces (fecal indicator bacteria, FIB). The fate of FIB in the environment should mimic that of bacterial, protozoan, and viral human pathogens, which may also be allochthonous (e.g. Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, or enteric viruses) or autochthonous (e.g. Vibrio spp.) to aquatic environments. FIB are contributed to water from human and animal sources; however, pollution source cannot be determined by conventional FIB measurements. Because fecal source determination is important for pollution remediation and assessment of human health risks, microbial source tracking (MST) methods are increasingly used in water quality studies. The host-specific genes (markers) used for MST include the 16S rRNA of Bacteroides HF183 and the T-antigen of human polyomaviruses (HPyVs). In my work, correlations among FIB, MST markers, and autochthonous pathogens were explored in the context of factors that may influence these relationships. Specifically, the effects of stormwater runoff, sediment resuspension, and survival/persistence of FIB on submerged aquatic vegetation were investigated in a recreational lake. Furthermore, the relationship between FIB and concentrations of the autochthonous pathogen, V. vulnificus, was investigated at water bodies surrounding Tampa Bay. I hypothesized that degraded water quality would influence the concentration and/or population structure of V. vulnificus, a potentially lethal human pathogen. Finally, I hypothesized that the gene encoding a sodium-phosphate transporter (nptA) would be differentially expressed in V. vulnificus strains under varying conditions of salinity and phosphate concentration. I hypothesized that stormwater infrastructure/runoff, SAV, and sediments would serve as reservoirs for FIB, human-associated microbes (HF183 and HPyVs), and allochthonous pathogens (Salmonella, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and enteric viruses). FIB concentrations in the water were positively associated with those in the sediment, SAV, and with 24hr antecedent rainfall. At least one MST marker or pathogen was found in 35% of samples following rain events. These data were incorporated into a Bayesian model, which predicted pathogen absence when fecal coliform concentrations were low. Stormwater was also shown to be an important reservoir/conveyance system for FIB, human-associated microbes, and pathogens. I hypothesized that polluted estuarine waters in Tampa Bay, and oysters harvested from them, would contain higher V. vulnificus concentrations, and that the population structure would be altered compared to unpolluted waters. Enumeration included direct plating, enrichment followed by plating, and quantitative PCR (qPCR). V. vulnificus colonies isolated directly on mCPC agar were rarely PCR-confirmed, although enrichment and qPCR methods yielded a higher confirmation frequency. Unconfirmed colonies resembling V. vulnificus were identified as V. sinaloensis via 16S rRNA sequence analysis and were more frequently detected in less polluted waters. Comparison of growth rates among V. vulnificus and V. sinaloensis strains in enrichment media and seawater showed that V. vulnificus had faster growth rates (µ) in enrichment media, but that µ of V. sinaloensis strains was greater in seawater. V. sinaloensis presence can therefore lead to overestimation of V. vulnificus concentrations when samples are directly plated. These results highlight a need for better understanding of the ecology and virulence potential of this newly-described species. Finally, I hypothesized that V. vulnificus strains with varying virulence potential would differentially express the nptA gene in response to changes in environmental conditions. Expression studies were performed on biotype 1, 2, and 3 strains, and strains more closely associated with environmental reservoirs (water or oysters) showed up to 100-fold greater nptA expression than strains isolated from clinical cases. Gene expression in environmentally-associated, but not clinically-isolated, strains was highest in media at pH 6.0 vs. those at pH ≥ 7.0 and at 10 / salinity. In contrast, expression was highest among clinical strains at 10 / salinity, pH 8.0 media. Sequence analysis of the nptA gene also divided strains into environmentally- and clinically-isolated groups. These results suggest that differences in gene expression may be related to host preference and may be associated with differential virulence of strains in humans. These studies demonstrate a relationship between water quality (determined by FIB concentrations) and the prevalence of allochthonous and autochthonous human pathogens, and reveal that many environmental habitats may serve as reservoirs for FIB and pathogens. Differences in water quality were further demonstrated to impact the community structure of Vibrio spp. and may affect the relative abundance of strains with greater virulence potential.