Nutrient Loads Associated with Different Sediment Sizes in Urban Stormwater and Surface Pollutants
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 130, Issue 4
Abstract
A significant amount of pollutants in urban stormwater runoff is transported as sediment-bound contaminants. It is important to have a clear understanding of the amount of pollutants attached to the different sediment sizes so that treatment facilities can be designed to effectively target the removal of the most polluted sediment sizes. This paper presents results from a study carried out to determine nutrient loads associated with different particle size ranges for dry surface pollutants and stormwater samples collected from an urban road surface. The results indicate that although more that half of the surface pollutant is coarser than 300 μm (microns), less than 15% of the total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) are attached to particle sizes greater than 300 μm. The pollutant loads in the different particle size ranges from different stormwater samples show a larger variability for TN than for TP. The dissolved component for TN ranges between 20 and 50% compared to 20–30% for TP. Practically all the particulate TP and TN in stormwater samples are attached to sediments between 11 and 150 μm. This suggests that to effectively remove TP and TN, pollutant treatment facilities must be able to remove particulates down to 11 μm.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 130 • Issue 4 • April 2004
Pages: 391 - 396
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 29, 2002
Accepted: Apr 17, 2003
Published online: Mar 15, 2004
Published in print: Apr 2004
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