Monitoring and Maintenance of Phosphate Adsorbing Filters
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 1
Abstract
Field installations of two iron-enhanced sand filters (IESFs), designed to remove phosphate and particulates from stormwater runoff, were monitored and maintained for 1–3 years. One application, a traditional IESF in an agricultural watershed, retained over 64% of the influent phosphate load, whereas the second, a pond perimeter IESF in a developing suburban watershed, retained 26%. The measured average effluent event mean concentration (EMC) for the traditional IESF was . All events exhibited positive removal of phosphate (i.e., effluent loads). In contrast, the measured percent phosphate retained for the pond perimeter IESF in 2013, 2014, and 2015 was 18, 25, and 45%, respectively. In addition, the average effluent EMC for the 3 years was 64.1, 54.2, and , respectively. Half of the events (14 of 28) were found to have negative removal (i.e., effluent loads). Events with negative removal tended to be smaller events with low influent phosphate concentrations (). Nonroutine maintenance improved the hydraulic performance of the pond perimeter IESF and, after a rinsing event, also improved phosphate retention rates to an average of 45%. There are believed to be at least two reasons for this difference in performance between the two IESFs: First, the traditional IESF was treating agricultural tile drainage with a low particulate phosphorus concentration, while the pond-perimeter IESF had a degrading mat of filamentous algae transported onto the surface, creating a source of phosphate that was not quantified. Second, the pond-perimeter IESF had treated a relatively large volume of water for its size, resulting in substantial flow-through in the filter within 5 years of operation. This is greater than anticipated for an IESF, and may have partially caused the reduction in performance.
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©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 9, 2016
Accepted: Jun 21, 2017
Published online: Nov 15, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Apr 15, 2018
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