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- Info
Urban planning criteria for non-point source water pollution control
| Author: |
Young, G. Kenneth; Danner, David .L. |
| Date: |
1982 |
| Periodical: |
Washington, DC: District of Columbia Water Resources Research Center; final report; Office of Water Research and Technology, U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Cooperative Program; Agreement No. 140001-1109 |
| Abstract: |
The examination of urban storm runoff and control alternatives has largely been made with assumptions regarding a single aspect of the urban water quality problem with respect to non-point sources. The research effort described in this paper couples urban storm runoff quality and control alternatives within the context of an urban sewerage system to evaluate various combinations of alternatives through their pollution, removal efficiencies and their costs. A model has been developed which simulates the response of a typical urban area to a time series of rainfall events. The model enables District of Columbia planners and other urban planners to formulate water quality control decisions with specific cost effectiveness measures. The runoff response mechanism of an urban area is examined for each component in the sewerage system. The modeling of the flow of runoff and sewage has been performed at a macro level for ease of use by city planners. The control alternatives examined include: in-line storage, sewer separation, street sweeping, sewer flushing, stormwater detention, and increased treatment capacity. Each pollution abatement measure is described with a pollution production function, a pollution removal function and a cost function. The identification of the pollutants generated, their amount and their significance is the initial information required by District of Columbia urban planners dealing with water quality. The second issue that faces the planner is to determine what means can be used to abate the pollution, and what will be the cost of such water quality control. The simulation model with its associated decision criterion has been validated against actual water quality data for Washington, D.C. The model demonstrates that a macro approach to cost/benefit analysis of non-point source water pollution can evaluate control trade-offs in terms of cost or in terms of abatement effectiveness. The importance of the developed methodology is that it provides an accurate estimate of urban pollution loads, pollution control capabilities, and control costs. These estimates do not require complex graphical techniques or large, explicit simulations. The user is not required to supply any technical or specialized information to run the model. The only inputs to the model are readily available physical characteristics of the urban area. The application of the model to the District of Columbia has shown that, given the existing treatment facility, the most cost effective abatement measure is regular street sweeping. Stormwater detention is the next most cost effective control followed by treatment and sewer separation. |
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