Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Third, commercial chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals are becoming both
more complex and more powerful. Many of these highly engineered chemicals elude
removal by 19th and 20th century water technologies.
These three drivers confront the water treatment engineers, managers, and operators,
who tend to be technology conservative and change resistant. They are, however, very
aware that they lack the treatment tools needed to address increasingly complex chemis-
try, with lower electrical loads and costs. At the same time, public awareness and regula-
tory pressures are becoming less tolerant of these trace chemicals in both drinking and
natural surface waters.
This awareness is high or growing for (i) municipalities, (ii) developers, (iii) universities
and schools, and (iv) agricultural soil professionals. Stormwater control issues stem pri-
marily from customers with impervious surfaces (e.g., parking lots, sports complex, high
production agricultural sites, construction sites, golf courses) and insuficient manage-
ment for high volumes of stormwater. High volumes of contaminated stormwater runoff
are common and costly, often causing eutrophication of lakes, ishkills, erosion, sedimen-
tation of wetlands and ish breeding sites, contamination of aquifers, and degradation of
drinking water sources.
To address these issues, a growing focus is being placed on addressing both volume of
stormwater low and stormwater quality protection as far upgradient as possible. However,
while a number of very good solutions are capable of high-quantity diversion of water
into detention and aquifer recharge systems, there are no effective systems for long-term
runoff pollutants from modern chemistry, fuels from motor vehicles, and nutrients from
fertilizers. Stormwater runoff quality management is a pointed, immediate, and global
issue seeking new solutions.
ABSMaterials' nanofunctional material, Osorb, which was initially developed to remove
toxins at superfund sites and industrial wastewater processes, ills this need. When added
to “green” stormwater systems such as enviroswales, bioswales, rain gardens, retention
zones, and stormwater swales, Osorb removes and destroys nearly all persistent industrial
pollutants it was designed to manage at industrial sites. Unexpectedly, the addition of
Osorb to green stormwater systems also encourages more robust rhizome communities,
increased genetic complexity, and a resulting biomass increase and nutrient consumption
within the systems.
33.3 Functionality of Osorb Materials and
Outcomes in Stormwater Systems
Affected stormwater runoff is making some waters unusable, polluting drinking water
sources, surface water features, and groundwater. Adding Osorb media ill far upgradient
in a system greatly improves the removal eficiency of herbicides, drugs, fuels, and other
components of runoff, and provides a method for capturing high-concentration pollutants
after heavy rainfall or snowmelt. Osorb media are shown to be durable and long lasting
and have a high loading capacity to remove large amounts of pollutants at any given time.
Beginning in 2011, ABSMaterials began a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small
Business Innovation Research (SBIR)-funded research to document how various types of
Osorb material improved eficiency in removal of pollutants at three indicative stormwater
locations. Two additional long-term study sites will be selected in the coming months. The
