Roads, buildings, vehicles, and human activities cause spreading of pollutants, which partly end up in stormwater. The pollutant load contains solid particles of various size, hydrocarbons, organics, metals, nutrients, and microorganisms, which can have negative effects on water quality of surface-, coastal- and ground waters. Furthermore, urban development causes hardening of ground and reduced soil permeability that promotes rapid runoff during precipitation. The conversion from permeable to impermeable surfaces therefore lead to increased volumes stormwater but also decrease in stormwater water quality.  Stormwater runoff metals are bound to various particles or occur in the dissolved fraction which is more toxic to aquatic life. Infiltration to soil, sand or other media is common practice to reduce runoff and filtrate metals and many treatment facilities and filter media have therefore been assessed for their metal removal efficiencies. High metal removal is often achieved for total metals, but removal of dissolved fraction remains elusive in many studies. Hence the importance of evaluate removal of dissolved metals before application to stormwater treatment facilities.  The experimental column study of metal removal using commercially available reactive filter media showed that all filter media removal efficiencies in the order of zinc > copper > nickel. Removal efficiencies of chromium and lead were not considerably higher in tested filter media compared to the reference filter sand. Two filter media also leached chromium during the initial part of the experiment. / Vägar, byggnader, fordon och mänskliga aktiviteter orsakar spridning av föroreningar av vilka en del förekommer i dagvatten. Urban bebyggelse orsakar också hårdgörande av ytor och reducerar jordens permeabilitet vilket skapar snabb avrinning vid nederbörd. Avrinningen innehåller bland annat partiklar, kolväten och andra organiska ämnen, metaller, näringsämnen och mikroorganismer vilka kan ha negativa effekter på yt-, kust- och grundvatten. Omvandlingen till hårdgjorda ytor orsakar därför både ökade volymer avrinning och sämre vattenkvalité.  Metaller i dagvatten är ofta bundna till olika partiklar eller förekommer i löst form där den lösta formen anses vara mest miljöfarlig. Infiltration i jord, sand eller annan media är vanliga sätt att reducera avrinning och filtrera metaller. Hög förmåga att avskilja metaller kan ofta hittas för totala koncentrationen av metall men avskiljning av den lösta formen är ofta oklar. Utvärdering av olika filtermaterials förmåga att reducera lösta metaller är därför av särskilt intresse.  Kolonnförsöken gjorda för att utvärdera metallavskiljningskapacitet med kommersiellt tillgängliga reaktiva filtermaterial har i denna uppsats visat att filtermaterialen har högst procentuell avskiljning för zink följt av koppar och därefter nickel. Krom och bly avskiljs inte mer i dessa filtermaterial än vad de gör i sandfilter. Två av filtermaterial läckte dessutom initialt höga koncentrationer krom.

M. Tech. (Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Applied and Computer Sciences) Vaal University of Technology. / Pollution of aquatic systems by wastewater containing pathogens, heavy metals and high concentrations of nutrients is of great concern due the ecological risks they impose. The toxic effects of metals may occur even at low concentrations because of potential bio magnification in the food chain. Excessive nutrients cause algal blooms which depletes oxygen and prevents sunlight from penetrating into the water, thereby killing fish and other aquatic organisms. This study investigated the pollutant removal efficiency of a riparian wetland located in Sebokeng, Emfuleni local municipality, South Africa. The study was carried out to assess the water quality of a wetland located downstream of the Sebokeng wastewater treatment plant by monitoring and analysing the physico-chemical parameters which included pH, temperature, electrical conductivity, nutrient levels (nitrates, phosphates, nitrites) and heavy metals. The water samples were collected from the effluent discharge of the treatment plant, upstream and downstream of the wetland. Plant uptake of heavy metals in a riparian wetland, nitrification as well as denitrification processes have been historically recorded as the main processes that contribute to the high removal of pollutants in a wetland. The contaminant concentrations of the influent and the effluent were used to estimate the wetland efficiency in improving the water quality that passes through it and its potential effects on improving the quality of irrigation waters. The heavy metals of interest included Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Pb, Mn and Zn. Most heavy metals within the wetland occurred at low concentrations (lower than detectable limits and within the discharge limits for irrigation purposes). The results indicate that the average removal efficiencies for Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total coliforms (TC), E. coli, BOD5, COD, TSS, carbonate hardness, aluminium, iron, manganese, copper, nitrite, nitrate, sulfate and ortho-phosphate were 43 %, 51%, 85%, 60%, 61%, 61%, 21%, 67%, 52%, 51%, 83%, 56%, 89%, 49% and 54% respectively. The study showed that this wetland can provide up to 89% removal efficiency of pollutants. Of particular significance was the high pathogen and nutrient removal efficiency. A t-test was performed in order to determine the statistical significance of the wetland pollutant removal efficiencies. All p-values calculated were well below 0.05 and the removal efficiencies are therefore considered statistically significant. For this particular ecosystem the findings show that there is no great concern about metal pollution since most of the metals tested for were below the minimum limit for irrigation stipulated by the South African water regulation department (DWAF 1996a). Therefore, the wetland effluent water qualifies for both agriculture and landscape irrigation. Future considerations in choosing to use wetlands as a polishing facility for wastewater treatment systems are highlighted in the study.