Effect of Increasing Discharge on Municipal Storm Sewer Systems: Exploring the Connection to Total Maximum Daily Load
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 150, Issue 1
Abstract
Climate change and urbanization are resulting in increased runoff for stormwater sewers to handle. This work uses hydraulic modeling and typical US prices to quantify the cost increase due to the larger pumps and pipes that will be needed for various amounts of discharge increase. Analysis was performed on a single sewer pipe and pump but also on a hypothetical system of varying sizes, incorporating cost for pipes pumps, and electricity usage. It was found that gravity-flow systems will cost up to nine times more than the current design amount. Cost increases can be estimated by a linear function with slope ranging from 0.025 to 0.019. The cost can increase by a factor of 0.24 for a 30-pipe system at a slope of 0.0001 and as little as 0.03 for a single pipe system at a slope of 0.0019. For a force main, the cost increase ratio is a function of the discharge ratio to the 0.5 power. For corrugated pipes, the cost ratio varied from 31% to 39% from that of concrete pipe and from 20% to 22% for a PVC pipe, making additional funds necessary. This has implications for total maximum daily load (TMDL) because more stormwater, especially of pollutant concentration greater than the TMDL concentration, will be entering surface water bodies subject to TMDL regulations.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The available data contain a spreadsheet with all the calculations.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 150 • Issue 1 • January 2024
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 30, 2023
Accepted: Sep 5, 2023
Published online: Nov 3, 2023
Published in print: Jan 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Apr 3, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Benefit cost ratios
- Business management
- Clean Water Act
- Concrete pipes
- Engineering fundamentals
- Environmental engineering
- Equipment and machinery
- Financial management
- Infrastructure
- Lifeline systems
- Pipeline systems
- Pipes
- Plastic pipes
- Practice and Profession
- Pumps
- Sewers
- Stormwater management
- Urban and regional development
- Urban areas
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Water policy
- Water treatment
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