Initial impacts of rain gardens’ application on water quality and quantity in combined sewer: field-scale experiment

Abstract

Impacts of rain gardens on stormwater were evaluated through field monitoring.

Statistical analysis is vital to evaluate field collected data.

Due to rain gardens, pollutant levels increased initially, but decreasedover time.

E. colilevel decreasedfrom the beginning after rain gardens were installed.

Rain gardens could result in 76% stormwaterreduction in affected combined sewers.

Green infrastructures such as rain gardens can benefit onsite reduction of stormwater runoff, leading to reduced combined sewer overflows. A pilot project was conducted to evaluate the impact of rain gardens on the water quality and volume reduction of storm runoff from urban streets in a combined sewer area. The study took place in a six-block area on South Grand Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. The impact was assessed through a comparison between the pre-construction (2011/2012) and the post-construction (2014) phases. Shortly after the rain gardens were installed, the levels of total suspended solids, chloride, total nitrogen, total phosphorous, zinc, and copper increased. The level of mercury was lower than the detection level in both phases. E. coliwas the only parameter that showed statistically significant decrease following the installation of rain gardens. The likely reason for initial increase in monitored water quality parameters is that the post-construction sampling began after the rain gardens were constructed but before planting, resulted from soil erosion and wash-out from the mulch. However, the levels of most of water quality parameters decreased in the following time period during the post-construction phase. The study found 76% volume reduction of stormwater runoff following the installation of rain gardens at one of studied sites. Statistical analysis is essential on collected data because of the encountered high variability of measured flows resulted from low flow conditions in studied sewers.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Rain gardens / Bioretention / Combined sewer / Stormwater quality and quantity

References

[1] USEPA. Nutrient Control Design Manual. 2010, EPA/600/R-10/100, August 2010,

[2] Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD). Combined Sewer Overflow Long-Term Control Plan Update Report. Exhibit MSD 47A, 2011.

[3] USEPA. Keeping Raw Sewage & Contaminated Stormwater Out of the Public’s water. 2011, Sewer Report 3, USEPA Region 2, New York.

[4] USEPA. Protecting Water Quality from Urban Runoff. Washington, D.C., EPA 841-F-03–003, 2003.

[5] Christianson R, Brown G, Barfield B, Hayes J. Bioretention and Infiltration Devices for Stormwater Control. Advances in Hydro-Science and–Engineering, volume 6, 2004

[6] Roy-Poirier A, Champagne P, Filion Y. Review of bioretention system research and design: past, present, and future. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2010, 136(9): 878–889

[7] Davis A P. Field performance of bioretention: water quality. Environmental Engineering Science, 2007, 24(8): 1048–1064

[8] Davis A P, Hunt W F, Traver R G, Clar M. Bioretention technology: overview of current practice and future needs. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2009, 135(3): 109–117

[9] Brown R A, Hunt W FIII. Impacts of media depth on effluent water quality and hydrologic performance of undersized bioretention cells. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 2011, 137(3): 132–143

[10] Li H, Davis A P. Water quality improvement through reductions of pollutant loads using bioretention. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2009, 135(8): 567–576

[11] Davis A P, Shokouhian M, Sharma H, Minami C. Laboratory study of biological retention for urban stormwater management. Water Environment Research, 2001, 73(1): 5–14

[12] Davis A P, Shokouhian M, Sharma H, Minami C, Winogradoff D. Water quality improvement through bioretention: lead, copper, and zinc removal.Water Environment Research, 2003, 75(1): 73–82

[13] Hunt W F, Jarrett A R, Smith J T, Sharkey L J. Evaluating bio-retention hydrology and nutrient removal at three field sites in North Carolina. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 2006, 132(6): 600–608

[14] Hunt W F, Smith J T, Jadlocki S J, Hathaway J M, Eubanks P R. Pollutant removal and peak flow mitigation by a bioretention cell in urban charlotte, NC. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2008, 134(5): 403–408

[15] Passeport E, Hunt W F, Line D E, Smith R A, Brown R A. Field study of the ability of two grassed bioretention cells to reduce storm-water runoff pollution. Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering, 2009, 135(4): 505–510

[16] Wang R, Eckelman M J, Zimmerman J B. Consequential environmental and economic life cycle assessment of green and gray stormwater infrastructures for combined sewer systems. Environmental Science & Technology, 2013, 47(19): 11189–11198

[17] Heijungs R, Huijbregts M. A Review of Approaches to Treat Uncertainty in LCA. 2004.

[18] Montague M, Slovacek P, Reed D. Field Test Procedures. St. Louis: The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Division of Environmental Compliance, 2009

[19] American Public Health Association (APHA), American Water Works Association (AWWA), Water Environmental Federation (WEF). Standard Methods of the Examination of Water and Wastewater. 20th Ed. Washington, D.C.: American Public Health Association, 1998

[20] USEPA. Methods for Chemical Analysis of Water and Wastes. USEPA/600/4–79/020. 1983.(July 14, 2017)

[21] Sawyer C N, McCarty P L, Parkin G F. Chemistry for Environmental Engineering and Science. 5th ed. New York. McGraw-Hill, 2003, ISBN 0–07–248066–1

[22] Alyaseri I, Zhou J. Comparative evaluation of different types of permeable pavement for stormwater reduction- St. Louis green alley pilot study. In: The International Low Impact Development (LID) Conference Proceeding, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), January 19–21, 2015. Houston, Texas: ASCE Library, 2015, 274–284

[23] De-Winter J C, Dodou D. Five-point Likert items: t test versus Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 2010, 15(11): 1–12

[24] Conover W J. Practical Nonparametric Statistics. 3rd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999 , ISBN-13: 978–0471160687

[25] Zimmerman D W. A warning about the large-sample Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test. Understanding Statistics, 2003, 2(4): 267–280

[26] Ludbrook J, Dudley H. Why permutation tests are superior to t and F tests in biomedical research. American Statistician, 1998, 52(2): 127–132

[27] Davis A P, Shokouhian M, Sharma H, Minami C. Water quality improvement through bioretention media: nitrogen and phosphorus removal.Water Environment Research, 2006, 78(3): 284–293

[28] Hsieh C H, Davis A P. Evaluation and optimization of bioretention media for treatment of urban storm water runoff. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2005, 131(11): 1521–1531

[29] Hsieh C H, Davis A P. Multiple-event study of bioretention for treatment of urban storm water runoff.Water Science and Technology, 2005, 51(3 – 4): 177–181

[30] Dietz M E. Low impact development practices: a review of current research and recommendations for future directions. Water, Air, and Soil Pollution, 2007, 186(1 – 4): 351–363

[31] Corsi S R, De Cicco L A, Lutz M A, Hirsch R M. River chloride trends in snow-affected urban watersheds: increasing concentrations outpace urban growth rate and are common among all seasons.The Science of the Total Environment, 2015, 508(1): 488–497

[32] Water Environmental Federation (WEF). Stormwater Report: Solving Slick Roads and Salty Streams.

[33] USEPA. Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Chloride-1988. EPA 440/5–88–001. National Technical Information Service (NTIS), Springfield, VA,1988.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg