Increasing Stormwater Outfall Duration, Magnitude, and Volume through Combined Sewer Separation
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 11, Issue 5
Abstract
Combined sewer separation projects designed for water quality benefits will change pipe networks and alter stormwater outfall hydrographs. Separation induced outfall hydrograph changes were explored for the combined sewer overflow (CSO) 050 service and its 29 stormwater catchbasins in Syracuse, N.Y. Topographic and infrastructure analysis together with catchbasin monitoring of stormwater runoff were used to parametrize and validate the Storm Water Management Model for two events in 2003. Sewer separation impacts on outfall hydrographs were then analyzed for 50 historical and 28 design precipitation events, ranging from to duration, frequency. Separation of combined sewers increased historic storm median outfall hydrograph duration by 2,044%, peak magnitude by 113%, and volume by 617%, whereas increases in design storm median outfall duration was 879%, peak magnitude was 27%, and volume was 54%. Changes in outfall hydrograph characteristics were explained by system infrastructure, soil infiltration, and storm properties of intensity and duration. CSO 050 and adjoining outfall sub-areas comprise less than 1% of the Onondaga Creek receiving water drainage area, yet for an extreme rain event the separated systems generated outfalls peaks 18% greater than the 51 year average Creek flow, even though volumetric contributions to the Creek were relatively small. Innovative terrestrial stormwater management is needed to reduce aquatic impacts of separation projects.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgements
Generous funding from Congressman James Walsh and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has supported this research. Information provided by the Onondaga Department of Water Environment Protection, Moffa and Associates, the Syracuse Department of City Engineering and the Syracuse Department of Parks & Recreation were critical to advancing this analysis. Guidance from anonymous reviewers helped expand this study design.
References
American Society of Civil Engineers and the Water Environment Federation (ASCE/WEF). (1992). “Chapter 10: Combined sewer systems.” Design and Construction of Urban Stormwater Management Systems, Urban Water Resources Research Council, ed., New York.
Burnett, A. W., Kirby, M. E., Mullins, H. T., and Patterson, W. P. (2003). “Increasing great lake-effect snowfall during the twentieth century: A regional response to global warming?” J. Clim., 16, 3535–3542.
Chin, D. A. (2000). Water resources engineering, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Couture, M., Sullivan, W. D., and MacRitchie, D. (2003). “Solving CSO problems.” Water and Wastewater International, 18(6), 13–14.
Crowder, D. W., and Diplas, P. (2000). “Using two-dimensional hydrodynamic models at scales of ecological importance.” J. Hydrol., 230(3–4), 172–191.
Dedrick, R. R., and Halfman, J. D. (2000). “An inexpensive, microprocessor-based data logging system.” Comput. Geosci., 26, 1059–1066.
Djokic, D., and Maidment, D. R. (1991). “Terrain analysis for urban stormwater modelling.” Hydrolog. Process., 5, 115–124.
Effler, S. W., and Hennigan, R. D. (1996). “Onondaga Lake, New York: Legacy of pollution.” Lake Reservoir Manage., 12(1), 1–13.
Endreny, T. A. (2004). “Stormwater management for society and nature via service learning and ecological engineering.” Int. J. Water Resour. Dev., 20(3), 445–462.
ESRI. (2005). ArcGIS 9.0 Documentation, Redlands.
Federal Interagency Stream Restoration Working Group (FISRWG) (1998). “Stream corridor restoration—Principles, processes, and practices.” NTIS: PB98-158348INQ, Washington, D.C.
Hammer, T. R. (1972). “Stream channel enlargement due to urbanization.” Water Resour. Res., 8(6), 1530–1540.
Huber, W. C., and Dickinson, W. T. (1992). “Storm water management model, version 4, user’s manual.” EPA-600-3-88-001a, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Athens, Ga.
Hutchinson, S., and Daniels, L. (1997). Inside ArcView GIS, 2nd Ed., OnWord Press, Sante Fe, N.M.
Hutton, F. Z. J., and Rice, C. E. (1977). “Soil survey of Onondaga County, New York.” U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Washington, D.C.
Martin, S. (2003). “Design specifications and sewage flow approximations.” Meeting, Syracuse, N.Y.
Mays, L. W. (1999). Hydraulic design handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Nash, J. E., and Sutcliffe, J. V. (1970). “River flow forecasting through conceptual models. Part I: A discussion of principles.” J. Hydrol., 27(3), 282–290.
Onondaga County. (2001a). “Midland Avenue conveyances/regional treatment facility phase two engineering report.” Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, Syracuse, N.Y.
Onondaga County. (2001b). “Onondaga County CSO program evaluation report.” Rep., Onondaga County Department of Drainage and Sanitation, Syracuse, N.Y.
Poff, N., Allan, J., Bain, M., Karr, J., Prestegaard, K., Richter, B., Sparks, R., and Stormberg, J. (1997). “The natural flow regime: A paradigm for river conservation and restoration.” BioScience, 47(11), 769–782.
Rawls, W. J., Ahuja, L. R., Brakensiek, D. L., and Shirmohammadi, A. (1993). “Infiltration and soil water movement.” Handbook of Hydrology, D. R. Maidment, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 5.1–5.51.
Riley, A. L. (1998). Restoring streams in cities: A guide for planners policymakers and citizens, Island Press, Washington, D.C.
Riley, T. C. (2003). “Advancing the HWS data logger and urban infiltration and interception modeling.” M.Sc., SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, N.Y.
Riley, T. C., Endreny, T. A., and Halfman, J. D. (2005). “Monitoring soil moisture and watertable height with a low-cost data logger.” Comput. Geosci., in press.
Rossman, L. A. (2005). “Storm water management model user’s manual version 5.0.” EPA/600/R-05/040, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Water Supply and Water Resources Division, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Cincinatti.
Smith, M. B., and Brilly, M. (1992). “Automated grid element ordering for GIS-based overland flow modeling.” Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens., 58(5), 579–585.
Syracuse Intercepting Sewer Board (1927). “Onondaga Creek Flood Prevention.” Rep., The City of Syracuse, Syracuse, N.Y.
Urbonas, B. R., and Roesner, L. A. (1993). “Hydrologic design for urban drainage and flood control.” Handbook of Hydrology, D. R. Maidment, ed., McGraw-Hill, New York, 5.1–5.52.
United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). (1947). “Definite project report on local flood protection: Onondaga Creek, Syracuse, N.Y.” War Department, Buffalo, N.Y.
United States Congress. (1994). “Federal registrar: Part VII combined sewer overflow control policy.” #18688, Washington, D.C., Vol. 59, No. 75.
USEPA. (1995). “Combined sewer overflows—Guidance for long-term control plan.” EPA 832-B-95-002, Washington, D.C.
USEPA. (1997). “Compendium of tools for watershed assessment and TMDL development.” EPA 841-B-97-006, Washington, D.C.
USEPA. (1998). “1996 clean water needs survey report to Congress—assessment of needs for publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities, correction of combined sewer overflows, and management of storm water and nonpoint source pollution in the United States.” EPA-832-R-97-003, Washington, D.C.
USEPA. (2000). “NPDES: Combined sewer overflows demographics.” http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/cso/demo.cfm .
Walsh, C. (2000). “Urban impacts on the ecology of receiving waters: A framework for assessment, conservation and restoration.” Hydrobiologia, 431, 107–114.
Willems, P., and Berlamont, J. (1999). “Probabilistic modeling of sewer system overflow emissions.” Water Sci. Technol., 39(9), 47–54.
XP-Software. (2001). XP-SWMM 2000 training notes and tutorials: Model with confidence, Portland, Ore.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 11 • Issue 5 • September 2006
Pages: 472 - 481
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Jan 19, 2005
Accepted: Aug 18, 2005
Published online: Sep 1, 2006
Published in print: Sep 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.