Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Use of Absorptive Media to Monitor
Stormwater Contamination in Small Urban
Drains
Stephen Marshall, Vincent Pettigrove, Matthew Potter, and Tony Barrett
Introduction
Urban streams are frequently contaminated with heavy metals and petroleum
hydrocarbons
[1]
. Industrial catchments in Melbourne contribute disproportion-
ately high concentrations of these pollutants to stormwater
[2]
. Major sources of
stormwater pollution from industrial areas include building materials, paved sur-
faces and/or poor work practices. Councils in the Melbourne region are responsible
for ensuring that appropriate premises and work practices are used by industries
within their region. One of these councils, the City of Kingston, implemented a
stormwater Education and Enforcement (E&E) program to improve the quality of
runoff from industrial estates in their region. This program involved auditing storm-
water management practices in industrial catchments, together with community
education and enforcement where necessary, to improve any poor practices.
The City of Kingston wanted to know whether their program improved the quality
of runoff from their industrial areas. Practical evaluation of an E&E program
requires estimation of prevailing runoff water quality pre-and post-program.
However, it is difficult to reliably measure the quality of runoff water from small
(<100 ha) urban sub-catchments
[3]
. Continuous water quality samplers may pro-
vide a good indication of pollutant concentrations given sufficient time and
adequate flow
[4]
. However, for surveying more than a few sub-catchments, the
installation and maintenance of automatic sampling equipment is prohibitively
expensive. Sediment quality assessment is an alternative approach for identifying
S. Marshall
Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research (CESAR), The University of
Melbourne, ParkvilleVictoria, 3010
V. Pettigrove and M. Potter
Research and Technology, Melbourne Water Corporation, PO Box 4342 Melbourne, Victoria 3001
T. Barrett
City of Kingston, PO Box 1000 Mentone, Victoria 3194
