Cistern Performance for Stormwater Management in Camden, NJ

The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority installed cisterns at locations around the city of Camden, NJ. Cisterns provide a cost effective approach to reduce stormwater runoff volume and peak discharge. The collected water can be substituted for potable water in some applications reducing the demand. This presentation focuses on five cisterns that were monitored as part of a capture-and-use system at community gardens. The cisterns capture water from existing rooftops or shade structures installed by CCMUA as part of the project. Cistern volumes varied from 305 gallons to 1,100 gallons. The design volume was based on the available roof drainage area. Water level was monitored at 10-minute intervals using pressure transducers and rainfall was recorded using tipping bucket rain gauges. Cisterns were sampled at 6 to 8 week intervals through the growing season for determination of concentration of microorganisms, nutrients, and metals. The analyses detected antimony, arsenic, barium, copper, lead, manganese, nickel, vanadium, and zinc. Concentration of all these metals were below recommended water quality criteria for irrigation by EPA guidelines for water reuse. The total nitrogen, phosphate, and total organic carbon concentrations varied from 0.23 to 2.26 mg/L, 0.025 to 1.11 mg/L, and 0.55 to 4.06 mg/L, respectively. Large total coliform concentrations were observed in some samples. The presentation will summarize the data for first growing season giving the results from monitoring the water use and water quality of cisterns.