Download or read book Pollutant Load Reductions for Total Maximum Daily Loads for Highways written by Shahid A. Abbasi and published by Transportation Research Board. This book was released on 2013 with total page 71 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The intent of this synthesis is to collect information on the types of best management practices (BMPs) currently being used by state departments of transportation (DOTs) for meeting total maximum daily load (TMDL) water quality goals for stormwater runoff. The study approach includes two major components: interviews with 12 state DOTs to identify the existing state of the practice as it relates to TMDL implementation, and a review of selected literature sources based on the criteria of highways, TMDLs, BMP performance, and BMP cost to stay consistent with the goals of this synthesis. In particular, detailed quantitative BMP performance and cost data, including life-cycle costs, are presented, which builds significantly on previous studies of this nature. The impetus for this study was to help fill in a significant information gap on what types of BMPs are cost-effective for specific use in linear highway applications for TMDL implementation purposes. Even with the advent of new low-impact development/green infrastructure practices, there remain a lack of effective BMP technologies and nonstructural controls (e.g., source control and water quality credit trading) for DOTs to implement for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit compliance. This problem will only grow larger as new TMDLs are continually being developed, and many DOTs are unprepared both technically and economically to cope with the additional requirements (some states already have 60+ TMDLs in which they are a named stakeholder). In an effort to help state DOTs with TMDL implementation, a simple user-friendly BMP matrix/toolbox with quantitative performance and, where available, life-cycle cost data for various structural and nonstructural BMPs is presented. Some of the more common TMDL pollutants of concern (sediment, nutrients, fecal coliform, and metals) are focused to maximize applicability for state DOTs. The performance and cost data were derived from numerous literature sources including the International Stormwater BMP Database, which currently consists of more than 400 studies. This study is designed to help promote information exchange and technology transfer among DOTs for the mutual benefit of all highway managers faced with TMDL implementation. Conclusions from this synthesis are briefly highlighted here by general topic area, with more details provided in chapters four and five. Performance for structural BMPs varied by pollutant and BMP type; however, certain trends did emerge from the literature review. In general, total suspended solids (TSS) appear to be relatively easy to treat with a broad range of BMPs, including infiltration basins, sand filters, and bioretention. Nutrients (especially total nitrogen) can be more challenging to remove; nonetheless, some BMPs (e.g., Austin sand filters for total nitrogen and infiltration basins for total phosphorus) showed some promise. Fecal coliform data were limited; however, several BMPs were documented as being effective, including infiltration basins, and infiltration trenches, among others. Additional BMP performance data from the International Stormwater BMP Database support the view that media filters and retention ponds are consistently effective for a wide variety of TMDL pollutants, including TSS, nutrients, fecal coliform, and total metals. This conclusion is based on statistics that show that median concentrations of these pollutants were statistically lower in effluent concentrations compared with influent concentrations based on a large number of studies from around the country (although not all highway related). Overall, while these BMPs may be generally effective across a range of environmental conditions, obtaining local site-specific BMP monitoring data would be preferable for developing individual state DOT TMDL programs. Performance data are also presented for nonstructural practices such as street sweeping, catch basin cleaning, and tree planting. Quantitative performance data are generally lacking in the literature for these types of BMPs. The limited information found suggests that street sweeping and catch basin cleaning may potentially be effective strategies for reducing TSS, nutrients, and metals provided they are performed frequently enough and the right technology is used (in the case of sweeping). Tree planting and stream restoration were documented as having some water quality benefits for nutrients. Notably, anti-icing management has been successfully demonstrated in New Hampshire, where a 20% reduction in chlorides was achieved by upgrading the technology on snow plows in response to a chloride TMDL. In addition to performance, life-cycle cost data are presented where available. However, the cost information could not be adequately synthesized owing to differences in cost estimating approaches, reporting units, variability in costs among states and regions, and inconsistencies in BMP naming conventions. This also prevented a true cost-benefit analysis. However, numerous sources of life-cycle cost data, as well as sources for individual cost elements such as design, construction, and operation and maintenance, are provided where the interested reader may obtain more detailed information. Given the differences in cost from one region to another, the reader is encouraged to obtain cost data that are most relevant to their state. Hyperlinks are provided in the BMP matrix/toolbox where one may access examples of reports with detailed life-cycle cost data, and numerous additional cost sources are cited throughout the section on Highway Best Management Practices in chapter three. There appear to be several common elements to developing an effective TMDL implementation program, all of which have the potential to benefit DOTs by helping them receive a more equitable waste load allocation and developing a more manageable TMDL program. The key elements are listed here (although not all may apply to every DOT): Increase awareness and training within the DOT on TMDL issues, especially in cases where the DOT is named a stakeholder in only a few TMDLs (or none). Develop off-site watershed partnerships and collaborate with other stakeholders to ensure cost-effective approaches based on economies of scale and to promote information sharing and technology transfer among stakeholders. Collaborate with the state regulatory agency during the TMDL development process, especially early in the process. Estimate pollutant loads generated within the DOT right-of-way (either through water quality monitoring or modeling) and predict potential load reductions from various BMP implementation scenarios. Although some DOTs had relatively successful TMDL programs, others clearly faced a number of challenges. The primary challenges were limited financial resources, a lack of effective BMP technologies for linear highway applications, and difficulties in navigating complex regulatory environments where TMDL-related requirements were either inconsistently enforced or restricted the flexibility of the DOT in implementing BMPs of their choice. Further research is suggested on the following topics: long-term adverse environmental and cultural aspects of BMP implementation; new and innovative BMP technologies suitable for the highway environment; more studies on BMP longevity, life-cycle costs, and maintenance costs and standards; and alternative and creative solutions to addressing emerging TMDLs for less traditional pollutants such as biological integrity, sediment toxicity, and organic compounds (e.g., vehicle source control, water quality trading)"--Pages 1-2.

Download or read book Watershed Management for Potable Water Supply written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-02-17 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1997, New York City adopted a mammoth watershed agreement to protect its drinking water and avoid filtration of its large upstate surface water supply. Shortly thereafter, the NRC began an analysis of the agreement's scientific validity. The resulting book finds New York City's watershed agreement to be a good template for proactive watershed management that, if properly implemented, will maintain high water quality. However, it cautions that the agreement is not a guarantee of permanent filtration avoidance because of changing regulations, uncertainties regarding pollution sources, advances in treatment technologies, and natural variations in watershed conditions. The book recommends that New York City place its highest priority on pathogenic microorganisms in the watershed and direct its resources toward improving methods for detecting pathogens, understanding pathogen transport and fate, and demonstrating that best management practices will remove pathogens. Other recommendations, which are broadly applicable to surface water supplies across the country, target buffer zones, stormwater management, water quality monitoring, and effluent trading.

Download or read book Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2020-12-04 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York City's municipal water supply system provides about 1 billion gallons of drinking water a day to over 8.5 million people in New York City and about 1 million people living in nearby Westchester, Putnam, Ulster, and Orange counties. The combined water supply system includes 19 reservoirs and three controlled lakes with a total storage capacity of approximately 580 billion gallons. The city's Watershed Protection Program is intended to maintain and enhance the high quality of these surface water sources. Review of the New York City Watershed Protection Program assesses the efficacy and future of New York City's watershed management activities. The report identifies program areas that may require future change or action, including continued efforts to address turbidity and responding to changes in reservoir water quality as a result of climate change.

Download or read book Assessing New York City s Watershed Protection Program written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems Manual written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This manual contains overview information on treatment technologies, installation practices, and past performance."--Introduction.

Download or read book Urban Stormwater Management in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 611 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rapid conversion of land to urban and suburban areas has profoundly altered how water flows during and following storm events, putting higher volumes of water and more pollutants into the nation's rivers, lakes, and estuaries. These changes have degraded water quality and habitat in virtually every urban stream system. The Clean Water Act regulatory framework for addressing sewage and industrial wastes is not well suited to the more difficult problem of stormwater discharges. This book calls for an entirely new permitting structure that would put authority and accountability for stormwater discharges at the municipal level. A number of additional actions, such as conserving natural areas, reducing hard surface cover (e.g., roads and parking lots), and retrofitting urban areas with features that hold and treat stormwater, are recommended.

Download or read book Riparian Areas written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-10-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.

Download or read book Privatization of Water Services in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2002-09-20 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the quest to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of water and wastewater services, many communities in the United States are exploring the potential advantages of privatization of those services. Unlike other utility services, local governments have generally assumed responsibility for providing water services. Privatization of such services can include the outright sale of system assets, or various forms of public-private partnershipsâ€"from the simple provision of supplies and services, to private design construction and operation of treatment plants and distribution systems. Many factors are contributing to the growing interest in the privatization of water services. Higher operating costs, more stringent federal water quality and waste effluent standards, greater customer demands for quality and reliability, and an aging water delivery and wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure are all challenging municipalities that may be short of funds or technical capabilities. For municipalities with limited capacities to meet these challenges, privatization can be a viable alternative. Privatization of Water Services evaluates the fiscal and policy implications of privatization, scenarios in which privatization works best, and the efficiencies that may be gained by contracting with private water utilities.

Download or read book Watershed Management written by Timothy Randhir and published by IWA Publishing. This book was released on 2006-11-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Watershed management is an integrated approach that evaluates system-wide implications of natural resource problems. It has received considerable attention among communities and resource managers as an appropriate approach to deal with complex problems. Problem-solving is an important aspect of watersheds that involves diagnosis, assessment, solution, and implementation issues that often mean processing an enormous amount of information. A typical problem requires compilation of information from a variety of sources and is time consuming. This book will use a problem-based approach to present information on each problem facing watersheds. The subject area derives from a variety of disciplines and experiences and is presented clear and systematically throughout for easy reading and understanding. The problems covered in the book are major ones facing watersheds through the globe. The first chapter introduces principles of watershed management and is followed by chapters that are problem specific. Each problem is dealt with systematically with introduction, analysis, strategies, and further references. Watershed Management provides a valuable reference to professionals, students, scientists, and common citizens who are interested in learning about the variety of problems and approaches in watershed management.

Download or read book Technical Guidance Manual for Performing Waste Load Allocations written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Geographic Information Systems in Water Resources Engineering written by Lynn E. Johnson and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: State-of-the-art GIS spatial data management and analysis tools are revolutionizing the field of water resource engineering. Familiarity with these technologies is now a prerequisite for success in engineers' and planners' efforts to create a reliable infrastructure.GIS in Water Resource Engineering presents a review of the concepts and application

Download or read book Diffuse Pollution written by N. Campbell and published by IWA Publishing. This book was released on 2005-02-01 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diffuse (non-point source) pollution is increasingly being recognised as a major source of water quality problems in both surface and ground water. Indeed, as pollution resulting from point sources is reduced by the efforts of regulators, diffuse sources frequently remain as the dominant source of pollution. The book is an introductory text covering the nature, causes and the significance of diffuse pollution of both urban and rural origin. Best management practices to tackle the problems are examined as are the ways in which the adoption of such practices may be brought about. Use is made of case studies from several countries to examine the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches. Diffuse Pollution covers both urban and rural sources. Urban sources include run-off from impermeable surfaces of roads, industrial areas and housing which may be contaminated by hydrocarbons, heavy metals, organic chemicals and other undesirable substances. Rural sources include water containing pollutants arising from agriculture and forestry such as plant nutrients, pesticides, microbes and soil itself. This concise book will prove useful to practitioners in the field of pollution control both in an urban and a rural environment, to regulators, to researchers new to the field, and to academics and students. An extensive reference section aids the reader in exploring the subject further. Contents Diffuse pollution A Best Practice Approach An Introduction to BMPs for built environments Managing diffuse pollution from urban sources - a survey of best practice experience Rural BMPs Rural best practice experience Regulation, Economic instruments, and Education for controlling diffuse pollution Sustainability Full Contents List (439KB)

Download or read book Nutrient Criteria Technical Guidance Manual written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Combined Sewer Overflows written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes memorandum from Michael B. Cook.

Download or read book National Management Measures to Control Nonpoint Source Pollution from Urban Areas written by and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Municipal Stormwater Management written by Thomas N. Debo and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2002-11-25 with total page 1174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed to be a stand alone desktop reference for the Stormwater manager, designer, and planner, the bestselling Municipal Stormwater Management has been expanded and updated. Here is what's new in the second edition: New material on complying with the NPDES program for Phase II and in running a stormwater quality programThe latest information on

Download or read book The Water Environment of Cities written by Lawrence A. Baker and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-11-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept for the Water Environment of Cities arose from a workshop “Green 1 Cities, Blue Waters” workshop held in 2006. The workshop assembled experts from engineering, planning, economics, law, hydrology, aquatic ecology, geom- phology, and other disciplines to present research ?ndings and identify key new ideas on the urban water environment. At a lunch discussion near the end of the workshop, several of us came to the recognition that despite having considerable expertise in a narrow discipline, none of us had a vision of the “urban water en- ronment” as a whole. We were, as in the parable, blind men at opposite ends of the elephant, knowinga great deal about the parts, but notunderstandingthe whole. We quickly recognized the need to develop a book that would integrate this knowledge to create this vision. The goal was to develop a book that could be used to teach a complete, multidisciplinary course, “The Urban Water Environment”, but could also be used as a supplemental text for courses on urban ecosystems, urban design, landscapearchitecture,water policy,waterqualitymanagement andwatershed m- agement. The book is also valuable as a reference source for water professionals stepping outside their arena of disciplinary expertise. The Water Environment of Cities is the ?rst book to use a holistic, interdis- plinary approach to examine the urban water environment. We have attempted to portrayaholisticvisionbuiltaround theconcept of water as a coreelement ofcities. Water has multipleroles:municipalwatersupply,aquatichabitat,landscapeaesth- ics, and recreation. Increasingly, urban water is reused, serving multiple purposes.