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Effects of Stormwater Pipe Size and Rainfall on Sediment and Nutrients Delivered to a Coastal Bayou
Author(s) -
Grigas Daniel,
Lehrter John,
Cebrian Just,
Chen Yushun,
Ehmen Brenna,
Woodrey Mark
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143015x14362865226275
Subject(s) - stormwater , pollutant , environmental science , sediment , nutrient , water quality , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental engineering , surface runoff , water discharge , geology , ecology , geotechnical engineering , paleontology , biology
Pollutants discharged from stormwater pipes can cause water quality and ecosystem problems in coastal bayous. A study was conducted to characterize sediment and nutrients discharged by small and large (< 20 cm and >20 cm in internal diameters, respectively) pipes under different rainfall intensities (< 2.54 cm and > 2.54 cm, respectively). Results showed that large pipes had greater discharge than small pipes. Pollutants concentrations did not vary by pipe size. Large pipes had greater loads of TSS (138.2 vs. 24.0 mg/s), NO 3 − (5.54 vs. 2.74 mg/s), and NH 4 + (0.39 vs. 0.19 mg/s) than small pipes. Neither discharge nor constituents varied by rainfall events. Pipe size may be a useful metric for estimating loads to a system. Nutrient reduction efforts should be directed to reducing the dissolved nutrient pools, while stormwater management efforts should be directed to reducing pipe freshwater discharge volumes that drive constituent loads.