Detection of Wastewater Discharges into Stormwater Sewers: Effects of Travel Distance on Parameters
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 5
Abstract
In separate sewer systems, there is a risk that wastewater from illicit connections may enter a stormwater sewer and ultimately outfall into receiving waters, adversely affecting receiving water quality and increasing risks to public health. A common approach in using methods for the detection of wastewater pollution in stormwater systems for some municipalities is to take grab samples at the outlet of a stormwater sewer, some distance away from the point(s) of ingress of the pollution. However, once pollution enters a stormwater network, the concentration or detectability of indicator parameters may change. The aim of this study was to evaluate the variation in detectability of various wastewater quality parameters depending upon the distance from the point of ingress of the wastewater into a stormwater sewer. This includes E. coli, total coliform, Enterococci, conductivity, turbidity, total suspended solids, and ammonium. This study introduces a maximum detection distance—the maximum distance at which the detection of individual quality parameters would no longer be reliable. Recommendations on planning a wastewater detection program and selecting appropriate indicator parameters are given.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work has been done with financial support from the Research Council Formas (2012-618) and Vinnova (2011-03232), within the Stormwater&Sewers (Dag&Nät) research cluster. This support is gratefully acknowledged. The authors would also like to thank colleagues from the Urban Water Group at Luleå Technical University: Ralf Rentz, Hanna Rosentreter, Kerstin Nordqvist, Helen Galfi, Laila C. Słberg, Inga Herrmann, Jonathan Mattsson, Ahmed Al-Rubaei, and Hendrik Rujner; as well as Jimmy Jakobsson and Lars Brännvall (both from Luleå Municipality) for their help in the field and during the laboratory work.
References
Alexander, L. M., Heaven, A., Tennant, A., and Morris, R. (1992). “Symptomatology of children in contact with sea water contaminated with sewage.” J. Epidemiol. Community Health, 46(4), 340–344.
Cabral, J. P., and Marques, C. (2006). “Faecal coliform bacteria in Febros River (northwest Portugal): Temporal variation, correlation with water parameters, and species identification.” Environ. Monit. Assess., 118(1–3), 21–36.
Chudoba, E. A., Mallin, M. A., Cahoon, L. B., and Skrabal, S. A. (2013). “Stimulation of fecal bacteria in ambient waters by experimental inputs of organic and inorganic phosphorus.” Water Res., 47(10), 3455–3466.
Deffontis, S., Breton, A., Vialle, C., Montréjaud-Vignoles, M., Vignoles, C., and Sablayrolles, C. (2013). “Impact of dry weather discharges on annual pollution from a separate storm sewer in Toulouse, France.” Sci. Total Environ., 452–453, 394–403.
Duncan, H. (1999). “Urban stormwater quality: A statistical overview.” Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology, Melbourne, Australia.
Easton, J. H., Gauthier, J. J., Lalor, M. M., and Pitt, R. E. (2005). “Die-off of pathogenic E. coli O157:H7 in sewage contaminated waters.” JAWRA J. Am. Water Resour. Assoc., 41(5), 1187–1193.
Elmanama, A. A., Afifi, S., and Bahr, S. (2006). “Seasonal and spatial variation in the monitoring parameters of Gaza Beach during 2002–2003.” Environ. Res., 101(1), 25–33.
Field, K. G., and Samadpour, M. (2007). “Fecal source tracking, the indicator paradigm, and managing water quality.” Water Res., 41(16), 3517–3538.
Galfi, H., Nordqvist, K., Sundelin, M., Blecken, G.-T., Marsalek, J., and Viklander, M. (2014). “Comparison of indicator bacteria concentrations obtained by automated and manual sampling of urban storm-water runoff.” Water Air Soil Pollut., 225(9), 1–12.
Gujer, W. (2008). Systems analysis for water technology, Springer, Berlin.
Irvine, K., Rossi, M. C., Vermette, S., Bakert, J., and Kleinfelder, K. (2011). “Illicit discharge detection and elimination: Low cost options for source identification and trackdown in stormwater systems.” Urban Water J., 8(6), 379–395.
ISO (International Organization for Standardization). (2005). “Water quality—Determination of suspended solids—Method by filtration through glass fibre filters (Swedish Standard).” SS-EN 872:2005, Geneva.
Jeng, H. A. C., Englande, A. J., Bakeer, R. M., and Bradford, H. B. (2005). “Impact of urban stormwater runoff on estuarine environmental quality.” Estuarine Coastal Shelf Sci., 63(4), 513–526.
Klocker, C. A., Kaushal, S. S., Groffman, P. M., Mayer, P. M., and Morgan, R. P. (2009). “Nitrogen uptake and denitrification in restored and unrestored streams in urban Maryland, USA.” Aquat. Sci., 71(4), 411–424.
Luleå Kommun. (2014). Befolkningen i Luleå 2013-12-31, Luleå, Sweden (in Swedish).
MATLAB R2012b [Computer software]. MathWorks, Natick, MA.
Medema, G. J., Bahar, M., and Schets, F. M. (1997). “Survival of Cryptosporidium parvum, Escherichia coli, faecal enterococci and Clostridium perfringens in river water: Influence of temperature and autochthonous microorganisms.” Water Sci. Technol., 35(11), 249–252.
Miguntanna, N. S., Egodawatta, P., Kokot, S., and Goonetilleke, A. (2010). “Determination of a set of surrogate parameters to assess urban stormwater quality.” Sci. Total Environ., 408(24), 6251–6259.
Minitab 17.1.0 [Computer software]. Minitab, State College, PA.
Mizunoe, Y., Wai, S. N., Takade, A., and Yoshida, S. (1999). “Restoration of culturability of starvation-stressed and low-temperature-stressed Escherichia coli O157 cells by using H2O2-degrading compounds.” Archiv. Microbiol., 172(1), 63–67.
Nielsen, P. H., Raunkjaer, K., Norsker, N. H., Jensen, N. A., and Hvitved-Jacobsen, T. (1992). “Transformation of wastewater in sewer systems: A review.” Water Sci. Technol., 25(6), 17–31.
Ouattara, N. K., Garcia-Armisen, T., Anzil, A., Brion, N., and Servais, P. (2014). “Impact of wastewater release on the faecal contamination of a small urban river: The Zenne River in Brussels (Belgium).” Water Air Soil Pollut., 225(8), 2043.
Pai, T. Y., et al. (2013). “Modelling transportation and transformation of nitrogen compounds at different influent concentrations in sewer pipe.” Appl. Math. Modell., 37(3), 1553–1563.
Pai, T.-Y., Chen, C. L., Chung, H., Ho, H. H., and Shiu, T. W. (2010). “Monitoring and assessing variation of sewage quality and microbial functional groups in a trunk sewer line.” Environ. Monit. Assess., 171(1–4), 551–560.
Panasiuk, O., Hedström, A., Marsalek, J., Ashley, R. M., and Viklander, M. (2015). “Contamination of stormwater by wastewater: A review of detection methods.” J. Environ. Manage., 152, 241–250.
Peeler, K. A., Opsahl, S. P., and Chanton, J. P. (2006). “Tracking anthropogenic inputs using caffeine, indicator bacteria, and nutrients in rural freshwater and urban marine systems.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 40(24), 7616–7622.
Pitt, R. (2004). Illicit discharge detection and elimination: A guidance manual for program development and technical assessments, Water Permits Division, Office of Water and Wastewater, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC.
QuAAtro. (2004). “QuAAtro applications Method No. Q-001-04 Rev. 0 for ammonium.” Bran+Luebbe, Germany.
Rieckermann, J., Neumann, M., Ort, C., Huisman, J. L., and Gujer, W. (2005). “Dispersion coefficients of sewers from tracer experiments.” Water Sci. Technol., 52(5), 123–133.
Sankararamakrishnan, N., and Guo, Q. (2005). “Chemical tracers as indicator of human fecal coliforms at storm water outfalls.” Environ. Int., 31(8), 1133–1140.
Schilperoort, R., Hoppe, H., de Haan, C., and Langeveld, J. (2013). “Searching for storm water inflows in foul sewers using fibre-optic distributed temperature sensing.” Water Sci. Technol., 68(8), 1723.
Scott, T. M., Rose, J. B., Jenkins, T. M., Farrah, S. R., and Lukasik, J. (2002). “Microbial source tracking: Current methodology and future directions.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 68(12), 5796–5803.
Sharma, K., Ganigue, R., and Yuan, Z. (2013). “pH dynamics in sewers and its modeling.” Water Res., 47(16), 6086–6096.
Sinclair, R. G., Jones, E. L., and Gerba, C. P. (2009). “Viruses in recreational water-borne disease outbreaks: A review.” J. Appl. Microbiol., 107(6), 1769–1780.
Sivirichi, G. M., et al. (2011). “Longitudinal variability in streamwater chemistry and carbon and nitrogen fluxes in restored and degraded urban stream networks.” J. Environ. Monit., 13(2), 288–303.
Tixier, G., Rochfort, Q., Grapentine, L., Marsalek, J., and Lafont, M. (2012). “Spatial and seasonal toxicity in a stormwater management facility: Evidence obtained by adapting an integrated sediment quality assessment approach.” Water Res., 46(20), 6671–6682.
Tyagi, P., Edwards, D. R., and Coyne, M. S. (2009). “Distinguishing between human and animal sources of fecal pollution in waters: A review.” Int. J. Water, 5(1), 15–34.
Warith, M. A., Kennedy, K., and Reitsma, R. (1998). “Use of sanitary sewers as wastewater pre-treatment systems.” Waste Manage., 18(4), 235–247.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 5 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 31, 2015
Accepted: Oct 29, 2015
Published online: Jan 27, 2016
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 27, 2016
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.