xvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Research and
Development
Washington DC 20460
EPA/600/R-96/140
November 1996
Risk Management
Research Plan for
Wet Weather Flows
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EPA/600/R-96/140
November 1996
Risk Management Research Plan
For
Wet Weather Flows
by
Richard Field, Michael Borst, Mary Stinson,
Chi-Yuan Fan, Joyce Perdek, Daniel Sullivan
U.S. Environment Protection Agency
Edison, New Jersey 08837
and
Thomas O'Connor
Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education
Edison, New Jersey 08837
Project Officer
Richard Field
Water Supply and Water Resources Division
National Risk Management Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Edison, NJ 08837-3679
NATIONAL RISK MANAGEMENT RESEARCH LABORATORY
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
CINCINNATI, OHIO 45268
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency @ Printed on Recycled Paper
. Library (PL-12J)
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DISCLAIMER
This document has been reviewed in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency's
peer and administrative review process, and it has been approved for publication as an EPA
document.
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FOREWORD
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is charged by Congress with protecting the Nation's
land, air, and water resources. Under a mandate of national environmental laws, the Agency
strives to formulate and implement actions leading to a compatible balance between human
activities and the ability of natural systems to support and nurture life. To meet these mandates,
EPA's research program is providing data and technical support for solving environmental
problems today and building a science knowledge base necessary to manage our ecological
resources wisely, understand how pollutants affect our health, and prevent or reduce
environmental risks in the future.
The National Risk Management Research Laboratory is the Agency's center for investigation of
technological and management approaches for reducing risks from threats to human health and
the environment. The focus of the Laboratory's research program is on methods for the
prevention and control of pollution to air, land, water and subsurface resources; protection of
water quality in public water systems; remediation of contaminated sites and groundwater; and
prevention and control of indoor air pollution. The goal of this research effort is to catalyze
development and implementation of innovative, cost-effective environmental technologies;
develop scientific and engineering information needed by EPA to support regulatory and policy
decisions; and provide technical support and information transfer to ensure effective
implementation of environmental regulations and strategies.
In 1995, ORD initiated a reorganization to better manage its research programs. As part of this
effort, a strategic approach was established for all ORD programs, founded on a risk
assessment/risk management paradigm. A greater emphasis was also placed on wet weather flow
(WWF) research issues to support better watershed management and improve control of
nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. The focus of this plan is on the risk management aspects of
WWF research. It addresses effects, exposure and risk assessment questions, and presents
information on what is known in these areas, but emphasizes developing better risk-management
decision support tools and WWF control technologies (both end-of-pipe and upstream pollution
prevention/nonstructural approaches).
This plan was prepared by the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) of
EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) to guide WWF research for the next five
years. It supports the priority research questions and needs of the Office of Water (OW) and has
been peer-reviewed by two professional organizations engaged in WWF research. The group
responsible for the Agency's WWF research is the Urban Watershed Management Branch
(UWMB) of NRMRL's Water Supply and Water Resources Division (WSWRD). The plan will
be updated jointly between OW and ORD annually.
This publication has been produced as part of the Laboratory's strategic long-term research plan.
It is published and made available by EPA's Office of Research and Development to assist the user
community and to link researchers with their clients.
E. Timothy Oppelt, Director
National Risk Management Research Laboratory
111
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ABSTRACT
This plan was prepared by the National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL)
of EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD) to guide the risk management aspects of
urban wet weather flow (WWF) research for the next five years. There are three types of urban
WWF discharges: combined-sewer overflow (CSO), stormwater and sanitary-sewer overflow
(SSO); all are untreated discharges that occur during storm-flow events. WWFs
have proven to generate a substantial amount of chemical, physical and biological stress to
receiving waters. Control of WWF pollution is one of the top cleanup priority areas for the
Agency. Problem constituents in WWF include visible matter, pathogenic microorganisms,
oxygen-demanding materials, suspended solids, nutrients, and toxicants.
National cost estimates have developed that address the cost to control contamination
from the three sources of WWF. The projected costs for CSO pollution abatement are in excess
of $40 to $50 billion. SSO pollution control is also estimated to be in the tens of billions of
dollars. Stormwater management costs will even be higher than the combined costs of CSO and
SSO abatement. Municipalities are finding it difficult to meet these high costs, so low-cost
alternatives are a priority research area.
This research plan has two parts: strategic research directions and specific projects. There
are five research areas: characterization and problem assessment, watershed management, toxic
substances impacts and control, control technologies and infrastructure improvement. Active and
proposed projects supporting each research area are included. Funding levels are shown in Part II
and in Appendix B. The plan was peer reviewed by the Urban Water Resources Research Council
of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Water Environment Research
Foundation (WERF), Comments were also requested of over one hundred members of the Urban
Wet Weather Flows Federal Advisory Committee and its subcommittees. This document
incorporates changes that have been made as a result of these reviews.
IV
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ES-1
PART I - Strategic Research Directions
Background 1
The Problems 2
National Cost Estimates 4
Definition of the Urban Watershed 5
Regulation and Policy Background 6
Background 6
EPA's Initiative to Target Urban WWFs - The FACA Committee 7
EPA's CSO Control Policy 7
NPDES Permitting Program for Stormwater 8
Legal Framework for Controlling SSOs 9
NPS Requirements 10
Strategic Research Direction 10
Research Area - Characterization and Problem Assessment 11
Research Question/Needs 17
Research Area - Watershed Management 17
Research Question/Needs 22
Research Area - Toxic Substances Impacts and Control 22
Research Question/Needs 25
Research Area - Control Technologies 25
Research Question/Needs 29
Research Area - Infrastructure Improvement 29
Research Question/Needs 30
PART II - WWF Research Projects
Technology Transfer 31
Coordination With Others 32
Projected WWF Program Resources 33
Specific Projects 34
Research Area 1 - Characterization and Problem Assessment 35
Research Area 2 - Watershed Management 39
Research Area 3 - Toxic Substances Impacts and Control 50
Research Area 4 - Control Technologies 53
Research Area 5 - Infrastructure Improvement 65
6. Research Assistance 67
References
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
(Continued)
Appendix A- ORD'sNewRisked-Based Organization Al
Appendix B - WWF Research Program - FY97 Funding Bl
Tables:
Table 1 - Comparison of Pollutant Parameters for Storm-Flow Discharges 3
Table 2 - Past and Projected NRMRL WWF Program Resources 34
VI
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LIST OF SELECT
ACRONYMS
ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers
BMP - best management practice
BOD5 - biochemical oxygen demand, five-
day
CBEP - community-based environmental
protection
COD - chemical oxygen demand
CSO - combined-sewer overflow
CWA - Clean Water Act
DWF - dry-weather flow
EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
ETI - Environmental Technology Initiative
ETV - Environmental Technology
Verification
FACA - Federal Advisory Committee Act
FBM - flow balance method
I/I - infiltration/inflow
MCTT - multi-chambered treatment train
MS4 - municipal separate sanitary sewer
system
NPDES - National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System
NPS - nonpoint source
NCEA - National Center for
Environmental Assessment
NCERQA - National Center for
Environmental Research and
Quality Assurance
NERL - National Exposure
Research Laboratory
NHEERL - National Health and
Environmental Effects Research
Laboratory
NRMRL - National Risk Management
Research Laboratory
ORD - Office of Research and Development
RII - rain-induced infiltration
SLAMM - Source Loading and Management
Model
SSO - sanitary-sewer overflow
SWMM - Stormwater Management Model
USGS - U.S. Geological Survey
UWMB - Urban Watershed Management
Branch
UWRRC - Urban Water Resources Research
Council
WERF - Water Environment Research
Foundation
WQS - water quality standards
WSWRD- Water Supply and Water
Resources Division
WWF - wet weather flow
WWTP - wastewater treatment plant
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PART I-
STRATEGIC
RESEARCH
DIRECTIONS
BACKGROUND
The urban WWF problem is caused
by untreated discharges during storm events;
there are both quality and quantity issues.
Early drainage plans made no provisions to
control the impacts from this type of
pollution and physical stress from intensified
flow rate and volume. The WWF comprises
point source as well as diffuse nonpoint
source (NFS) discharges.
There are three types of urban WWF
discharges:
- combined-sewer overflow (CSO), a
mixture of storm drainage and municipal-
industrial wastewater discharged from
combined sewers or dry-weather flow
(DWF) discharged from combined sewers
due to clogged interceptors, inadequate
interceptor capacity, or malfunctioning CSO
regulators,
- stormwater from separate stormwater
drainage systems in areas that are either
sewered or unsewered, and
- sanitary-sewer overflow (SSO), overflow
and bypasses from sanitary-sewer systems
resulting from stormwater and groundwater
infiltration and/or inflow (I/I).
Further, there are diffuse NFS discharges
that include agricultural, silvicultural, mining,
rural, and open-space runoff. Septic system
discharges associated with high groundwater
levels or WWF surcharges of the
groundwater system are also of concern.
The earliest sewers were built for
collection and disposal of stormwater and,
for convenience, emptied into the nearest
watercourse. In later years, domestic or
sanitary wastewater was put into these large
storm drains, automatically converting them
into combined sewers. Subsequently,
combined sewers came into widespread use
in communities because they represented a
lower investment than the construction of
separate storm and sanitary sewers.
When the problems of sanitary
wastewater became recognized and the
construction of wastewater treatment plants
(WWTPs) commenced, engineers were
confronted with how best to separate wet-
from dry-weather flows to permit proper
treatment of the sanitary portion. This was
overcome by designing overflow structures
called CSO regulators at selected points in
the sewer system. These structures direct
combined flows that exceed a predetermined
multiple of mean DWF (or the intercepting
sewer/WWTP capacity) directly into the
receiving water body, whereas DWF is
conveyed to the WWTP.
Overflow (or relief) points are also
integral to separate sanitary sewerage
systems. In designing the sanitary-sewerage
system's sewers and WWTPs, nominal
allowances generally are made for
stormwater and groundwater infiltration.
Infiltration occurs due to joints and cracks in
piping, which increases with pipe age. This
problem of excessive flow entry is
compounded by inappropriate and
unauthorized stormwater connections,
groundwater inflows and blockages. Reliefs
in the separate sanitary system have been
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used as an immediate and low-cost solution
for these excessive flows. Studies conducted
for EPA (Hayes, Seay, Mattern & Mattern,
1970; Metcalf and Eddy, 1971) found that
separate systems with excessive I/I
essentially act as combined-sewer systems.
THE PROBLEMS
Untreated overflows from combined
and sanitary sewers have proven to be a
substantial pollution source in terms of
impact on the quality of the receiving water
body. This is true for combined sewers even
though the percentage of sanitary
wastewater lost from these systems by
overflow is small, on the order of 3 to 5%
(Dobbins, 1962; Cywin and Rosenkranz,
1969). The storm path and collection system
configurations have a pronounced influence
on CSO quality, resulting in simultaneous
discharge of mixtures of sanitary wastewater
and stormwater at different points. These
discharges may have sanitary pollutant
concentrations varying from highly
concentrated (raw-sanitary wastewater) to
highly diluted depending on a system's
adjustment to a particular storm pattern
(Field and Fan, 1981). As indicated by the
National Research Council: "Unlike sewage
treatment plants and other point sources
which discharge at relatively constant rates,
nonpoint sources deliver pollutants in pulses
linked to storm events. The quantity and
type of pollutant contained in nonpoint
sources depends on the human activity, the
intensity and duration of precipitation, and
the time between storms. The combination
of the randomness of rainfall with the varying
level of human activity makes controlling
nonpoint sources relatively difficult" (NRC,
1993).
Pollution problems stemming from
CSO, SSO and stormwater discharges are
extensive throughout the United States, with
the Northeast, Midwest, and Far West being
the principal areas of concentration.
Nationwide, approximately 1,100
municipalities have combined sewers, 85%
of which are in eleven states serving 43
million people; there are more than 15,000
overflow points within these systems. SSOs
occur in more than 1,000 municipalities and
stormwater discharges occur in as many as
1.2 million municipal, industrial, commercial,
institutional and retail sources.
Problem constituents in WWF
include visible matter, infectious
(pathogenic) microorganisms, oxygen-
demanding materials, suspended solids,
nutrients, and toxicants (e.g., heavy metals,
pesticides, and petroleum hydrocarbons).
The average five-day biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD5) concentration in
CSO is approximately one-half that of raw-
sanitary wastewater. However, storm
discharges can have a greater impact since
they occur over a short time period, thereby
shock loading the receiving water with high
BOD5 mass load. In addition, the volume of
WWF discharged is high. Urban stormwater
runoff flow rates from an average storm (0.1
in./h) are five to ten times greater than the
DWF from the same area. Likewise, a
common rainfall whose intensity is just ten
times higher than the average (1.0 in./h) will
produce WWF flow rates 50 to 100 times
higher than DWF. Even separate stormwater
is a significant source of pollution, typically
characterized as having suspended solids
concentrations equal to or greater than those
of untreated sanitary wastewater. The
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bacterial and viral pollution problem from
WWF is also severe.
The average pollutant concentrations
for urban stormwater runoff and CSO are
compared to the typical background levels
and to the sanitary wastewater levels in
Table 1. The background data are the
reported range of quality constituents from
the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
National Hydrologic Benchmark Network
that was established to obtain a natural
background. The ranges are average values
across the country. The sanitary wastewater
values represent common design values used
to characterize a medium strength municipal
wastewater. The values in this table for
stormwater and CSO represent a random
cross-section of sampling experience. The
samples represent mixed urban areas for
extended periods. (Lager et. al., 1977)
Table 1. Comparison of Pollutant Parametersa for Storm-Flow Discharges
Background
levels
Stormwater
runoff
Combined
sewer
overflow
Sanitary
wastewater
Suspended
Solids
5-100
415
370
200
Volatile
Suspended
Solids
90
140
150
Bio-
chemical
Oxygen
Demand
(BOD,)
0 5-3
20
115
200
Chemical
Oxygen
Demand
(COD)
20
115
375
500
Kjeldahl
nitrogen
1.4
3.8
40
Total
nitrogen
0 05-0 5 b
3-10
9-10
40
Phosphate
(P04-P)
001-02°
0.6
1.9
5
Ortho-
phosphate
(OPO4 -P)
0.4
1.0
4
Leadd
<0.1
0.35
0.37
e
Fecal
coliforms
14500
670 000
1,000,000
Notes: a. All values are in mg/L except fecal coliform which are in organisms/100 mL.
b. NO3asN.
c. Total phosphorus as P.
d. Prior to significantly lower unleaded gasoline usage.
e. No typical figure. Generally controlled by delivered water concentration or major
industrial source of metal.
Source: Lager et al, 1977.
A few municipal studies can serve to
exemplify the WWF pollution problem.
- In Northampton, England, the total mass of
BOD5 emitted from CSO over a two-year
period was approximately equal to the mass
of BOD5 emitted from the secondary WWTP
effluent (Field and Struzeski, 1972). The
BOD5 loadings during storm events were
much more severe due to shock loading.
The mass of suspended solids emitted in
CSO was three times that of the secondary
effluent (Gameson and Davidson, 1962).
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- A study (Dobbins, 1962) in Buffalo, N.Y.
showed that 20 to 30% of the suspended
solids in that domestic wastewater settled
out, built up in the combined sewer system
and were discharged during storms. This
was due to the relatively poor flow
characteristics of combined sewers during
dry weather. A surge of flow caused by a
rainstorm often purges the system,
culminating in a release of solids. As a
result, a large residual sanitary pollution load
over that normally carried is discharged over
a relatively short interval of time, producing
shock loadings detrimental to receiving-
water life.
- A study in Durham, N.C. (Bryan, 1971)
demonstrated that the largest single source
of pollution from an urban watershed was
stormwater runoff. When compared to the
raw municipal wastewaters, chemical oxygen
demand (COD) in the urban stormwater
runoff was equal to 91% of the raw
municipal wastewater COD; the BOD5 was
67%; and the suspended solids was 2000%
that contained in the raw municipal
wastewater. Urban stormwater runoff is a
significant contributor to the overflow
pollution load (in addition to the untreated
domestic and industrial wastes carried in
CSO). As stormwater drains from urban
land areas, it picks up accumulated debris;
animal droppings; eroded soil; tire and
vehicular exhaust residue; air-pollution
fallout; deicing compounds, pesticides and
polychlorinated biphenyls, fertilizers and
other chemical additives; decayed vegetation;
heavy metals; and many other known and
unknown contaminants.
- In another study (Field, 1990a), preliminary
screening of CSO and stormwater from nine
areas showed it contained approximately one
half the 129 priority pollutants. Heavy
metals were consistently found in all
samples. Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons
from petroleum products were the most
frequently detected organics followed, in
order, by phthalate esters, aromatic
hydrocarbons, halogenated hydrocarbons,
and phenols. The Nationwide Urban Runoff
Program (EPA, 1983) and other EPA studies
(Jordan, 1984) also indicate that stormwater
and CSO contain significant quantities of the
priority pollutants, respectively.
National Cost Estimates
National cost estimates have been
developed that address the cost to control
contamination from the three sources of
WWF. The projected costs for CSO
pollution abatement are in excess of $40 to
$50 billion. SSO pollution control is also
estimated to be in the tens of billions of
dollars. Stormwater pollution abatement
cost will even be higher than the combined
costs of CSO and SSO abatement. The
American Public Works Association's report,
Nationwide Costs to Implement BMPs
(1992), identified possible capital costs of up
to $407 billion and operation and
maintenance costs of $542 billion to meet
water quality standards for stormwater
discharges. Municipalities are finding it
difficult to meet these high costs, so low-cost
alternatives are a priority research area.
Addressing urban WWF in a coordinated and
comprehensive manner will reduce its threat
to water quality and minimize pollution
control costs while providing State and
municipal governments with greater
flexibility to solve WWF problems.
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DEFINITION OF THE URBAN
WATERSHED
This plan focuses on the urban
watershed, primarily because that is where
the bulk of the population lives and the
greatest impacts associated with water
quality and hydrologic-hydraulic
improvements will be felt. In contrast is the
rural watershed, including wilderness areas
far away from urban settings. Somewhere
between is the urban fringe, or suburban
area. The focus on urban areas, however,
includes addressing the watershed as a
whole, including urban fringe/suburban areas
and, to an extent, rural areas. Other research
programs, especially those of the Department
of Agriculture and Department of
Transportation, address the special issues
related to rural and agricultural NFS runoff.
This type of research is also being pursued in
the Water Quality Management Branch of
WSWRD and is part of the newly-created
program in Ecosystem Restoration which fits
across divisional programs in NRMRL. The
Army Corps of Engineers addresses drainage
system design with regard to flooding.
EPA and its views on the most
effective methods to protect water resources
are changing. EPA recognized the problems
with "one-size-fits-all" or "command and
control" regulations and the benefits that
develop when stakeholders are part of the
decision-making process. EPA also
recognizes its mission goes beyond
protecting water quality alone, and includes
the ecosystem, the interaction of the aquatic
system components, and the dependance of
terrestrial systems on the aquatic
environment. EPA is viewing its mission
under the Clean Water Act (CWA), the
Coastal Zone Recovery Act, the Safe
Drinking Water Act, and other associated
Congressional mandates as a broad mandate
to protect the full watershed.
The idea of watershed protection is
not new. As early as 1908, the Inland
Waterways Commission proposed managing
water resources at the watershed scale.
Congress recognized the benefits of a
watershed approach in 1965. The Water
Resources Planning Act predates EPA but
failed to accomplish the conceptual basin-
wide planning envisioned. More recently,
North Carolina reported on a promising
method to manage the watershed scale at
Watershed '93. South Carolina had
executed a similar program and Washington
and Delaware were developing the idea.
About a dozen states have, or are,
developing a watershed approach. Waste
Load Allocation, allocation trading, and
source controls are part of the watershed
vision.
Somewhere in this process, lies the
urban watershed. The urban watershed
component is an arbitrarily drawn subset of a
larger watershed loosely bound by
topography. It is clearly an important part of
the watershed holding most of the population
and contributing pivotally to water quality
problems. However, if urban areas eliminate
all contributions to the watershed, the quality
of the water entering the urban environment
from upstream sources does not improve and
the water still may not meet desired
standards or fulfill society's intended use.
As a minimum, the urban watershed
includes all contributions from the urban and
urban fringe areas within the 405
Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs)
holding at least 50,000 people based on the
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1990 census and proposed as the preferred
option under President Clinton's Clean
Water Initiative for implementing Phase II of
the CWA. These include, at a minimum,
MSA stormwater runoff, sanitary- and
combined-sewer outfalls, and National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permitted industrial and
commercial outfalls. However, this
minimum is not sufficient. For a reasonable
interpretation, the urban watershed research
must include the water entering the MSAs
and the options specific to that water. As a
minimum, it is necessary to include the
entering water to adapt to the situations
exemplified by total maximum daily load
(TMDL) trading that allows upstream
reductions to substitute for NPDES effluent.
The urban watershed research must similarly
recognize the probability of the expanding
MSA geographic area. The national
population is moving from the urban core to
the surrounding areas. The fastest growing
areas border estuaries and coasts.
Urban watersheds therefore include
(1) all sources (point and nonpoint)
originating within the Bureau of Census 405
MSAs considered urban or urban fringe, and
(2) water entering the MSAs (surface and
ground waters entering the MSAs from up-
stream sources, source waters supplying the
MSA population, and rain events).
REGULATORY AND POLICY
BACKGROUND
Background
In 1972, under the authority of Public
Law 92-500, the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act, EPA created the NPDES. This
was intended to control discharges to the
Nation's waters from industrial, commercial,
and municipal point sources; these
discharges presented a threat to water quality
and public health. Initial efforts focused on
traditional pollutant discharges from
industrial manufacturing processes and
municipal WWTPs.
Later amended to become the CWA,
this law provides broad authority for EPA or
States (authorized by EPA) to issue NPDES
permits. Specific reporting requirements are
established in the permits to require
monitoring and reporting of discharges. The
CWA establishes two types of standards for
conditions in NPDES permits: technology-
based standards and water quality-based
standards. These standards are used to
develop effluent limitations and special
conditions in NPDES permits. Numeric
effluent limitations establish pollutant
concentration limits for effluents at the point
of discharge. Section 402(a)(l) authorizes
the inclusion of other types of conditions that
are determined to be necessary, known as
special conditions, in NPDES permits.
Special conditions can include requirements
for best management practices (BMPs) to
control WWFs.
Since the implementation of the
CWA requirements, EPA has begun to
address nontraditional sources of pollution,
such as those that result from WWF. The
NPDES program currently requires permits
for point sources, but not for NPSs.
Pollutants in WWF discharges from
many sources remain largely uncontrolled.
The EPA in both its 1992 National Water
Quality Inventory (EPA, 1994a) and its 1995
Report to Congress (EPA, 1995a) cited
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pollution from WWF as the leading cause of
water-quality impairment. WWF from both
point and nonpoint sources is one of the
largest remaining threats to water quality,
aquatic life, and human health that exists
today. The National Research Council
(1992) concluded that correction of NFS
pollution problems is a major priority to
surface water protection and should be
implemented a part of a large scale aquatic
ecosystem program.
In its National Agenda for the Future,
issued on December 30, 1994, two priority
areas were cited by EPA in the water
program:
- protect public health by ensuring that
drinking water is safe
- protect the environment by improving
WWF controls
This was reiterated by EPA in 1996 in the
updated "National Water Program Agenda
for the Future: 1996-1997".
EPA's Initiative to Target Urban WWFs -
the FACA Committee
To address WWF problems
systematically, EPA recently began a major
initiative targeting urban WWF pollution
issues. As part of this effort, a series of
stakeholder committees were formed under
the Federal Advisory Committee Act
(FACA). One group, the Urban Wet
Weather Flows Advisory Committee, acts as
a forum to identify and provide
recommendations on how to address a range
of issues associated with urban WWF
discharges. The committee includes
representatives of major stakeholders,
including EPA, municipalities, States,
industries, trade associations and
environmental groups.
EPA's CSO Control Policy
As indicated earlier, CSOs represent
one of the major WWF pollution sources.
Historically, however, the control of CSO
has proven to be extremely complex and
costly. This complexity stems partly from
past difficulties in quantifying CSO impacts
on receiving-water quality and the site-
specific variability in CSO volume,
frequency, and characteristics. In addition,
control costs for communities with CSOs are
high.
To address these challenges, EPA
issued a National Combined Sewer Overflow
Control Strategy on August 10, 1989 (EPA,
1989). This strategy reaffirmed that CSOs
are point-source discharges subject to
NPDES permit and the CWA requirements.
The strategy recommended that all CSOs be
identified and categorized according to their
status of compliance with these
requirements. It also set forth three
objectives: ensure that if CSOs occur, they
are only as a result of wet weather; bring all
weather CSO discharge points (wet weather
and dry weather) into compliance with the
technology-based and water quality-based
requirements of the CWA; and minimize the
impacts of CSO on water quality, aquatic
biota, and human health. In addition, the
CSO Strategy charged all states to develop
permitting strategies designed to reduce,
eliminate, or control CSO.
Although the CSO Strategy was
successful in focusing increased attention on
CSO, it fell short in resolving many
fundamental issues. In mid-1991, EPA
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initiated a process to accelerate
implementation of the Strategy. The process
included negotiations with representatives of
the regulated community, State regulatory
agencies, and environmental groups. The
initiative resulted in a CSO Control Policy
(EPA, 1994b) which: provides guidance to
NPDES permitting and enforcement
authorities, State water quality standard
(WQS) authorities, and NPDES permittees
with CSO; ensures coordination among the
appropriate parties in planning, selecting,
designing, and implementing CSO
management practices and controls to meet
the requirements of the CWA; and ensures
public involvement during the decision-
making process. The CSO Control Policy
contains provisions for developing
appropriate, site-specific NPDES permit
requirements for all combined-sewer systems
that overflow due to wet-weather events. It
also announces an enforcement initiative that
requires the immediate elimination of
overflows occurring during dry weather and
ensures compliance with the remaining CWA
requirements as soon as possible.
The CSO Control Policy contains the
following four key principles to ensure that
CSO controls are cost-effective and meet the
requirements of the CWA:
- it provides clear levels of control presumed
to meet appropriate health and environment
objectives;
- it provides sufficient flexibility to
municipalities, especially those that are
financially disadvantaged, to consider the
site-specific nature of CSO and to determine
the most cost-effective means of reducing
pollutants and meeting CWA objectives and
requirements;
- it allows for a phased approach for
implementation of CSO controls considering
a community's financial capability;
- it allows for review and revision, as
appropriate, of WQS and their
implementation procedures when developing
long-term CSO control plans to reflect the
site-specific wet-weather impacts of CSO.
NPDES Permitting Program for
Stormwater
Responding to the need for
comprehensive NPDES requirements for
Stormwater point-source discharges,
Congress amended the CWA in 1987 to
require the EPA to establish phased NPDES
requirements for Stormwater discharges.
These comprehensive requirements address
permit applications, regulatory guidance, and
management and treatment requirements.
To implement these requirements, EPA
published the initial Phase I Stormwater
program permit application requirements to
address certain categories of Stormwater
discharges associated with industrial activity
and discharges from larger storm-sewer
systems (located in 842 municipalities with
populations of 100,000 or more) on
November 16, 1990 (EPA, 1990).
One-hundred thirty thousand facilities
have been identified as having Stormwater
discharge associated with industrial activity.
These include all Stormwater discharges
associated with industrial activity whether
they discharge through municipal Stormwater
systems (whether they be small or large) or
directly into waters of the United States.
Discharges of Stormwater to a sanitary-sewer
system or to a WWTP are excluded.
Facilities with Stormwater discharges
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associated with industrial activity include:
manufacturing facilities; construction
operations disturbing five or more acres;
hazardous waste treatment, storage, or
disposal facilities; landfills; certain sewage
treatment plants; recycling facilities; power
plants; mining operations; some oil and gas
operations; airports, and certain other
transportation facilities. Government-owned
facilities must also comply. Stormwater
discharge permits will provide a mechanism
for monitoring the discharge of pollutants to
waters of the United States and for
establishing appropriate controls.
The Phase II Stormwater program
potentially applies to smaller municipalities
and is estimated to include as many as 1.1
million commercial, institutional, and retail
sources, and 5,700 municipalities (urbanized
areas of populations between 50,000 and
100,000). This is about ten times the
number of facilities identified in Phase I. In
1995, EPA submitted a Report to Congress
providing data, facts, and other information
on sources to be considered under a Phase II
Stormwater program (EPA, 1995a).
A FACA Urban WWFs Advisory
Committee subcommittee is addressing
issues associated with the development of
regulations for the Stormwater Phase II
program.
Legal Framework for Controlling SSOs
The CWA prohibits point-source
discharges of pollutants to waters of the
United States unless authorized by NPDES
permit. Thus, unpermitted discharges from
sanitary-sewer systems, e.g., SSOs, violate
the CWA. This is true whether the discharge
is directly to surface waters or indirectly
through groundwater hydrologically
connected to surface waters. Similarly,
SSOs that drain through streets or other
areas into storm sewers and then into waters
of the United States violate the CWA unless
authorized by NPDES permit. Finally, even
SSOs that do not discharge to waters of the
United States may be associated with
NPDES permit violations. For example, 40
CFR 122.41(e) requires that NPDES permits
include a provision for proper operation and
maintenance of all treatment facilities and
systems and controls installed or used by the
permittee to comply with permit conditions.
Poor operation and maintenance practices
that result in SSO would violate such permit
provisions.
SSOs may be specifically identified as
subject to NPDES monitoring and reporting
requirements. Operators of systems with
SSOs that are not authorized by NPDES
permit must either eliminate the discharge or
submit a permit application (see 40 CFR
122.21(a)).
The CWA does not specify whether
the technology-based standard for permits
for SSO would be either: (1) the standard for
publicly owned treatment works (POTW) or
(2) the standard for all point-source
discharge except those from POTW. For
POTW, the CWA requires secondary
treatment. For all other point-source
discharges, the CWA has different
requirements for different categories of
pollutants: (1) best available technology
economically achievable for toxic pollutants
and nonconventional pollutants, and (2) best
conventional pollutant control technology for
conventional pollutants. Conveyances (e.g.,
sewers, pump stations) which transport
wastewater to the WWTP are included in the
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regulatory definition of POTW. SSOs
discharge from these types of conveyances.
Therefore, one interpretation of the legal
framework for controlling SSOs is that the
POTW secondary treatment standard
applies. For combined sewer systems, EPA
decided bypasses occur only from the
process areas on the plant side of the
headworks. Therefore, in the CSO context,
secondary treatment requirements are only
applicable to discharges from the WWTP,
not discharges from CSO outfalls that occur
before reaching the headworks of the
treatment works. This interpretation was
upheld by the court in Montgomery
Environmental Coalition v. Costle. (1980).
EPA has not clarified whether SSOs should
be addressed in a similar or different manner
than CSOs.
A FACA Urban WWFs Advisory
Committee subcommittee was formed to
provide recommendations on how to address
issues associated with SSOs including
deciding between sewer rehabilitation and
treatment options to control SSO pollution.
NFS Requirements
Section 319 of the CWA requires
States to develop NFS assessment and
management programs. During FY96, EPA
began to implement changes designed to
strengthen the framework for State and
national NPS management programs. The
two primary areas of change will be
establishing clear benchmarks for upgraded
State NPS management programs and
streamlining NPS grants administration for
grant eligibility.
The specific NPS management
program requirements to be implemented
during FY96 are.
- complete review and approval of State
coastal NPS programs with the EPA Regions
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration;
- work with agricultural and urban sectors to
expand voluntary pollution prevention and
reduction projects;
- work with Regions and States to upgrade
State NPS programs; and
- publish and begin implementing new §319
program/grants guidance.
STRATEGIC RESEARCH
DIRECTIONS
In 1995, EPA's ORD initiated a
reorganization aimed to better manage its
research programs. As part of this, a
strategic approach was established for all
ORD programs, founded on a risk
assessment/risk management paradigm. A
greater emphasis was also placed on WWF
research issues.
In the risk management paradigm, the
risks associated with an environmental threat
are first characterized (using hazard
identification, dose-response assessment, and
exposure assessments) and then managed
through both regulatory programs and
voluntary activities. Given limited resources,
only significant risks that could have impacts
over large populations or areas are
addressed. The ORD strategic research
approach has four components:
- effects research to determine the effects of
stressors on humans and ecosystems,
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- exposure research to measure and predict
the extent to which humans and ecological
resources are exposed to pollutants and
other stressors, providing the basis for
exposure assessment,
- risk assessment research to integrate
hazard, dose-response, and exposure data
and models to produce risk
characterizations, and
- risk management research to develop,
evaluate, and disseminate effective tools and
approaches for preventing or reducing
current and anticipated risks to human health
and the environment.
The focus of this Plan is on the risk
management aspects of WWF research. It
addresses effects, exposure, and risk
assessment questions, and presents
information on what is known in these areas,
mainly in the context of developing better
risk management decision-support
tools and WWF control technologies.
Technologies being studied include both end-
of-pipe and upstream pollution prevention,
land and water management, and low-
structurally intensive approaches.
There are four distinct areas of WWF
research addressed by this Plan:
- characterization and problem assessment
- watershed management
- toxic substances impacts and control
- control technologies
A fifth area, infrastructure improvement, is
also emerging as a critical WWF research
category. These areas are discussed next in
greater detail. Each section begins with a
discussion on the state-of-the-knowledge and
is followed by research questions and
research needs that have been identified.
This Plan complements two other
strategic research plans currently under
preparation by ORE): Ecosystem Restoration
and Contaminated Sediments. There are
several distinct differences, however,
between these plans. With regard to
Ecosystem Restoration, while both plans will
consider the impacts of WWF on a
watershed-wide basis, this Plan focuses on
management (prevention and control)
technologies while the Restoration plan
centers on restoration of ecosystems.
Typical WWF research projects that would
fall under the Restoration Plan could include:
ecosystem restoration techniques,
stormwater impacts on stream stability,
stream impacts from WWF velocity/shear
forces and temperature changes, measuring
the effectiveness of stream restoration,
stream channels in rapidly developing
watersheds, and WWF impacts on channel
stability. Both plans, however, address
water quality impacts, water quantity
(hydraulic volumes, flowrate, temperatures)
impacts, nonpoint sources, both the urban
and urban fringe areas, and involve both
structural and nonstructural remedies.
Because of these similarities, the plans will
be closely coordinated so that no duplication
of effort occurs.
Research Area - Characterization and
Problem Assessment
To achieve the goal of addressing
pollution problems associated with WWF,
i.e., managing the risk posed, WWF and the
receiving-water bodies must first be
thoroughly characterized. The research in
this area has two components: (1)
characterization of WWF and associated
receiving-water body impacts, and (2)
development of characterization protocols.
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Knowledge of the receiving-water
impacts resulting from WWF is a basis for
determining the severity of problems and for
determining appropriate levels of control.
Research studies have shown that the
chemical, biological, and physical
characteristics of WWF in urban areas
negatively impact the aquatic ecosystems and
health effects from receiving waters. Table 1
presents concentration characterization data
for urban stormwater runoff and CSO.
Other receiving-water characteristics of
concern are the effects of WWF on
contaminated sediments, dissolved oxygen,
nutrient concentrations, heavy metals and
organic compounds. WWF's physical
stressors also impact receiving-water quality
and the ecosystem, although little research
has assessed the relative effects in this area.
Different types of receiving-water bodies are
affected by different types and aspects of
WWF, i.e., stormwater or SSO; chemical,
biological, or physical impacts. For example,
in some water bodies (lakes, estuaries),
physical impacts may not be important; some
receiving systems arise primarily in the urban
areas (small streams) and are affected
primarily by stormwater and some (larger
systems) pass through the urban area and are
subject to other forms of pollution problems,
such as CSOs and SSOs.
There is some controversy
concerning whether a direct cause-and-effect
relationship can be established to
characterize the impacts of WWF on water
quality and quantity. The issue centers more
on quality, since the quantity impacts
(flooding, erosion, scouring, etc) are fairly
obvious. This leads to a conclusion on the
part of municipal officials that we shouldn't
implement control measures unless a clear
relationship can be demonstrated. EPA
believes that there is a definite correlation
between storm events and degradation of
water bodies, associating both water quality
and water quantity impacts, and has
prioritized the improvement of WWF
controls to be one of its top two water
program priorities. The common sense
approach is pollution prevention, at the
source, to prevent contamination from
reaching the environment. The source
control approach, using both management
and structural means, is a common means of
addressing environmental pollution; in air
programs, for example, it is difficult to
establish a direct cause-and-effect
relationship between automobile exhausts
and degradation of air quality, but we
nonetheless insist on mandating source
controls. Some difficulties with measuring
receiving-water impacts of WWF are: (1)
each situation is unique, in terms of
watershed and runoff characteristics, (2)
even within one area, there are extreme
differences associated with each storm event
since weather conditions are so variable, (3)
there are variable reaction rates (e.g., BOD),
variable flowrates and velocities, variable
dilution rates, and (4) downstream confusion
caused by WWF entries and tributaries, etc.
This is markedly different from sanitary
sewerage design. Recognizing that this is a
significant issue, the Water Environment
Research Federation (WERF) is developing a
protocol for measuring WWF impacts. The
EPA will work with WERF in this important
effort.
The classic problem related to
organic pollution of receiving waters is the
consumption of instream oxygen by the
bacterial and chemical breakdown of organic
material. The resulting low level of oxygen
destroys sensitive species offish and aquatic
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organisms and may cause anaerobic
conditions which produce objectionable end
products (Field and Turkeltaub, 1981).
Under certain conditions, storm runoff can
govern the quality of receiving waters
regardless of the level of DWF treatment
provided. Based on national annual mass
balance determinations, urban wet-weather
oxygen demand loads are greater than the
dry-weather loads from the same areas and
ten times greater during storm-flow periods
(Field, 1990a). Heaney et. al. (1980) found
that worst-case conditions do not always
occur during the low-flow periods following
storms. Urban stormwater runoff effects on
dissolved oxygen, especially associated with
runoff sediments, may occur at times
substantially different from the actual storm
period (Field and Pitt, 1990).
Urban WWFs add significant
amounts of toxic materials to sediments in
receiving water bodies. In recent years,
contaminated sediments have emerged as a
major ecological and human health issue
throughout the United States. There are
direct acute and chronic toxic effects as well
as a continuing source of persistent
bioaccumulative toxic chemicals.
In 1994, EPA published the
Contaminated Sediment Management
Strategy (EPA, 1994c), the goals of which
are: (1) to prevent additional contamination
of sediments, (2) to restore contaminated
sediment to support ecological and human
health, (3) to allow for expeditious and
environmentally sound disposal of dredged
material, and (4) to develop methodologies
to enhance the capability for assessment of
sediment contaminants. The research needs
for contaminated sediments fall into four
areas: (1) determine the extent and severity
of sediment contamination, (2) develop
methods and collect data to assess the
ecological exposure and effects of sediment
contaminants, (3) develop and validate
chemical-specific sediment quality criteria,
and (4) develop and evaluate sediment
cleanup methods. Sediment generation and
transport, on the land surface and within the
urban drainage system, are two of the most
fundamentally important and least
understood phenomena related to urban
water quality. We need to understand the
source of sediment in urban areas as well as
the deposition and scour of sediment in
sewers and channels. What constituents are
in the sediment? The research should
address the hydrologic and hydraulic issues
of generation and transport. Among other
problems, we can't really model sediment
very well, in part because of a lack of
fundamental information on generation and
transport. This conclusion extends to any
constituents adsorbed to the sediment.
Sediment research needs to include efforts to
understand the transport of the kind of
cohesive sediment found in combined
sewers. Two contaminated sediment issues
specific to WWF research are: (1) can the
amount of sediment being washed into water
bodies during storms be reduced and (2) how
much does WWF contribute to the problem
of contaminated sediment in comparison to
other sources. These research areas are not
discussed in this plan but will be addressed in
the Agency's research plan on contaminated
sediments.
Examples of heavy metal and nutrient
accumulations in urban sediments are
numerous (Field and Pitt, 1990). A common
mechanism of polluted sediments affecting
the water column in urban streams is
resuspension of previously deposited
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material. Wilber and Hunter (1980) found
that significant sediment enrichments of
heavy metals in the lower Saddle River in
New Jersey were affected by urbanization,
compared with the more rural upper Saddle
River. The increase in heavy metal sediment
concentrations due to urbanization ranged
from about a factor of three for zinc and
copper to more than a factor of five for lead,
chromium, and cadmium. Similar results
were reported by Rolfe and Reinbold (1977),
who found that lead concentrations were
much higher in an urban stream (almost 400
ug/1) compared with rural streams near
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. They also
found a greater diversity of plants and
animals in the rural streams than in the urban
streams.
Pitt and Bozeman (1982) reported
the results of EPA's three-year monitoring
study of Coyote Creek in San Jose,
California. Short- and long-term sampling
techniques were used to evaluate the effects
of urban stormwater runoff on water quality,
sediment properties, fish, macro-
invertebrates, attached algae, and rooted
aquatic vegetation. Information collected in
this study indicated that the effects of
organics and heavy metals in the water and in
the polluted sediment were probably most
responsible for much of the adverse
biological conditions observed. Within the
urban area streams, many constituents were
found in significantly greater concentrations
during wet weather than during dry weather
(COD, organic nitrogen, and heavy metals ~
lead, zinc, copper, cadmium, mercury, iron,
and nickel). Urban stream dissolved oxygen
concentrations were about 20% less than in
the rural stream.
The EPA's CSO Control Policy
requires primary treatment (or equivalent)
and disinfection where necessary. The
growing awareness of the adverse
environmental impacts associated with the
chemical reaction products of chlorination,
the traditional disinfection technique, has led
to increasingly restrictive residual chlorine
requirements. Disinfection by chlorination
often can only effectively disinfect the free
floating or surface microorganisms due to
the relatively short residence time of the
WWF, and, depending on the degree of
treatment required, may not be effective if
microorganisms are contained in larger
protective solids. Chlorination has limits
which are a function of chemical demand
("chlorine demand") and microorganism
occlusion by particles relative to chemical
penetration. These limits are based on the
concentration, size, content and morphology
of wastewater particles; water chemistry;
contact time; mixing; and disinfectant
dosage/intensity. Therefore, determination
of these particle characteristics is necessary
for WWF disinfection process design.
The disinfection requirement under
the CSO Control Policy and the adverse
impacts associated with chlorination are
among the issues leading to the development
of alternative methods of disinfection. These
methods have problems similar to those of
chlorine disinfection. Specifically,
disinfection by UV-radiation of effluents
containing high concentrations of relatively
large protective suspended solids and
organics has proven to be ineffective. The
absorption of UV radiation by these
substances attenuates the available UV
energy and reduces the depth of penetration
into the wastewater (Roeber and Hoot,
1975). This reduction in disinfection
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effectiveness is further compounded by
microorganisms within relatively large
particles experiencing little or no radiation as
a result of the absorption of the radiation by
the outer, protective layer.
Historically, the impacts of WWF on
surface water have been considered to a
much greater extent than have those on
groundwater. Only recently have WWF
impacts on groundwater through both soil
infiltration and groundwater-surface water
interactions been considered. Pitt et al.
(1994) reviewed the groundwater
contamination literature as it relates to
stormwater. Potential problem pollutants
were identified, based on their mobility
through the unsaturated soil zone above
groundwater, their abundance in stormwater,
and their treatability before discharge. This
information was used together with earlier
EPA research results to identify the possible
sources of these potential problem
pollutants. Recommendations were also
made for stormwater soil infiltration
guidelines in different areas and monitoring
that should be conducted to evaluate a
specific stormwater for its potential to
contaminate groundwater. The stormwater
pollutants of most concern include: nutrients,
pesticides, other organics, pathogens, heavy
metals, and salts. A recent USGS report
(Mueller et. al., 1995) confirmed links
between environmental factors, e.g., land use
and soil type, and nitrate concentrations in
surface waters and groundwaters.
The WWF characterization
information presented above is on the
chemical and biological stressors. This
reflects the fact that, to date, research has
been conducted in these areas, but little has
been done on physical stressors. However,
WWF receiving water is impacted by
physical stressors, such as high-flow velocity
(high-shear force), temperature change, and
channel modification. A study by Pitt and
Bissonette (1984) on the effects of urban
stormwater runoff on streams included the
effects of physical stressors. They
summarized the many aspects of stormwater
in Bellevue, Washington. Part of this effort
was a series of studies to compare the
biological and chemical conditions in urban
Kelsey Creek with rural Bear Creek.
Conveyance of stormwater, open space and
resource preservation, recreational, and
aesthetic beneficial uses were all degraded to
varying greater extents in the urban creek,
compared with the rural creek. The urban
creek was significantly degraded when
compared with the rural creek, with a limited
and unhealthy salmonid fishery. The fish
population in Kelsey Creek had adapted to
its degrading environment by shifting the
species composition from coho salmon to
less sensitive cutthroat trout and by making
extensive use of less disturbed refuge areas.
There were significant differences in the
numbers and types of benthic organisms
found in the two creeks. The pattern in
which they were found provided an
indication of environmental degradation in
Kelsey Creek. These aquatic organism
differences were probably most associated
with the increased peak flows in Kelsey
Creek caused by urbanization and the
resultant increase in sediment carrying
capacity and channel instability of the creek.
Urbanization in the Kelsey Creek watershed
caused much greater flow volumes during
rains, and greatly reduced flows during dry
weather. These low flows may have
significantly affected the aquatic habitat and
the ability of the urban creek to flush toxic
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spills or other dry-weather pollutants from
the creek system.
The role of subsurface runoff in
WWF is emerging as a vital stressor in
watersheds. Both the subsurface pathways
and residence times of WWF can impact the
water quality and loading potential on
receiving waters. Advances in field
instrumentation (Sidle, 1995), soil water
residence time modeling (Unnikrishna et al.,
1995), and isotopic tracers (Kendall et al.,
1995) suggest that subsurface runoff may be
the stressor contributing most to receiving-
water impacts of WWF. The hydrological
characteristics along the surface water-
groundwater interface will impact both
chemical and biological WWF
characteristics.
When determining the chemical and
biological characteristics of WWF, analytical
methods for sanitary wastewater are often
used. For certain parameters, however,
these methods are not directly applicable and
specific WWF analyses are needed.
Differences between WWF and sanitary
wastewater that should be considered in
determining the applicability of sanitary
wastewater analytical methods to WWF
include: WWF is intermittent, where sanitary
wastewater flow is relatively constant; CSO
consists of particles from stormwater in
addition to those from sanitary wastewater,
and these particles have different densities,
sizes and biodegradability; and WWF
contains nonenteric microorganisms that
cannot be detected by using the bacterial
indicators of enteric origin used for analyzing
sanitary wastewater.
A problem with determining the
concentration of microorganisms in
wastewaters and receiving waters is that the
bacterial indicators used do not correlate
positively with the presence of fecal and
pathogenic contamination. The results of a
limited number of epidemiological studies
strongly suggest that total coliform, fecal
coliform, Escherichia coli, and enterococci
indicators, which generally have been used
for the analysis of sanitary wastewater,
cannot be used to accurately assess the
pathogenicity of recreational waters
receiving stormwater from separate storm
sewers or surface-water runoff. The studies
report little correlation between indicator
densities and the incidences of swimming
illnesses. Microbial analyses of stormwater
runoff have revealed a predominance of
nonenteric disease-causing bacteria and
viruses that have been linked to respiratory
illnesses and skin infections. The fecal-based
indicators provide no information on the
risks resulting from body contact with these
nonenteric pathogens. Consequently, for
receiving waters containing discharges that
originate primarily from separate storm-
drainage systems, current bacterial indicators
are ill-suited to accurately assess the water's
total illness-producing capabilities. Another
problem with these indicators is that the
bacteria they represent do not exist solely in
the feces of man; they also exist elsewhere,
i.e., in soils, vegetation, and animal feces,
and may falsely indicate the presence of
sanitary wastewater (O'Shea and Field,
1992).
The WWF characterization and
problem assessment research conducted to
date has not determined the best constituents
and characteristics that should be measured
in order to optimize treatment and control
alternatives. Real time/real need sensors that
would trigger control and treatment of the
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WWF do not exist. Research that would
specifically support the development and
application of wet-weather water quality
standards (e.g., mixing zones and dilution),
which are being considered by EPA, has not
been conducted.
Research Question
- What are the characteristics of WWF and
impacts on receiving-water bodies, and what
tools are available to best measure them?
Research Needs
- Review, improve and develop monitoring
methodologies and equipment to measure the
characteristics and impacts, including
pathogenicity, of WWFs.
- Determine WWF receiving-water impacts
and impaired beneficial uses that can be
attributed to chemical, biological, and
especially physical stressors. Consider the
characteristics of WWF and receiving water
with respect to time.
- Assess the effectiveness of disinfection
techniques using measurements that account
for microorganisms occluded by particles.
- Evaluate the impact of and extent to which
WWFs contribute to the contaminated
sediment problem in the United States.
Research Area - Watershed Management
Watershed management research
includes two broad, closely related
categories: protecting either ecological
resources (intended use) or source water
areas. In practice, actions undertaken to
protect one resource generally protect the
other despite differences in management
approach, characterization, and monitoring.
This underscores the strong interaction
between the WWF Research Plan and other
NRMRL research plans, especially the
ecosystem restoration and contaminated
sediment research plans. The tools required
for the two watershed management goals are
parallel. The first tool is a decision support
system, i.e., a collection of approaches
enabling water resource planners to select
consistent, appropriate interventions with
reasonable a priori estimates of the
effectiveness of the approach. The second
tool is developing and demonstrating new
control approaches that enable planners to
reach the protection goals. WSWRD
watershed management research will include
demonstrating and documenting techniques
that reduce cost and increase effectiveness,
refining and connecting hydraulic and water
quality models to fit current watershed-level
planning needs, demonstrating and
documenting techniques to protect surface
source waters, documenting and modeling
the interactions between stormwater runoff,
surface water, groundwater, soils, sediments,
and estimating the contribution of
atmospheric deposition within the watershed.
Watershed management research
emphasizes developing strategies and
alternatives to protect water resources of the
United States. In March 1994, EPA
proposed shifting NPDES authority to
improve watershed quality to the local
stakeholders through community-based
environmental protection (CBEP) programs.
These "place-based" programs recognize
both the complexity of the interactions in a
watershed and the site-specific nature of the
interactions caused by unique combinations
of biota, land use, and hydrology. In
practice, CBEP establishes a consortium of
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communities sharing a watershed that
assumes responsibility for incremental
environmental improvements within a
flexible framework. The consortium uses
communal, integrated actions to achieve a
set of specific measurable milestones. They
require common high-quality data to
establish priorities and communal objectives.
This approach requires community-level
intervention using hard (structural) and soft
(nonstructural) engineering approaches to
protect or restore watersheds from chemical,
physical, or biological stressors.
Watershed communities begin
intervention with a large-scale analysis,
identifying stressors and examining the broad
control options within the system
constraints. This leads to a small-scale
source and control option analysis to identify
the controllable sources and the most cost
effective interventions. The small-scale
analysis leads to a second macro-scale
analysis assessing the cumulative effect of
the selected interventions and evaluating the
probability of meeting the goal. The
evaluation simultaneously estimates the cost,
the time required to achieve the goal, and the
likelihood of a sustained change. Similarly,
the communities can assess potential
alterations to the landscape to decide if
allowing the changes would degrade the
system. Collectively, the various tools used
to enumerate, evaluate, and select the
options create a decision support system that
helps assure that they understand the array of
alternatives available to them.
Watersheds include the surrounding
land area topographically draining to the
surface water from the headwaters to the
next receiving body with the associated
groundwater, soil and sediment including the
biotic forms in each. Both phreatic and
topographic controls ultimately dictate the
surface water-groundwater flow divide.
Watershed management research must
produce a set of holistic, adaptive tools that
enable local communities to select cost-
effective approaches to protect or restore the
water resources within the watershed.
Decision support tools must consider both
natural and introduced stressors' temporal
and spatial fluctuations. The set of tools
must also allow planners to evaluate
cumulative discharge effects on the
watershed using chemical, physical and
biological measures. NRMRL's research
will concentrate on identifying, collating, and
developing techniques with associated cost,
efficiency, execution, performance, and
longevity data. Research efforts will
concentrate on approaches likely to be within
the pooled resources of a place-based
approach allowing flexibility coupled with
incremental quality improvements and
associated monitoring.
A decision support system is a
collection of tools that help the user
consistently and reliably reach an optimal
conclusion or understanding of the condition
using a defined set of measurements,
indicators, standards, and procedures. Each
tool in the system begins by making certain
the user has the information needed.
Subsequent steps process the information,
making a series of intermediate calculations
and evaluations that allow the decision-
maker to judge the chosen actions and
consider future actions. The tools do not
have a required form and most evolve with
use. The earliest form may be a simple
tabulation of measurements and results from
research, field demonstrations, evaluations,
or some combination collected when
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addressing a similar problem. These
tabulations form the foundation for decision
support tools. As patterns emerge, they lead
to object-oriented groupings in which any
situation is a special case of a generic
condition.
Humans interact significantly with the
watershed through both influent and effluent
contributions. Because of this interaction,
the urban and urban fringe influents including
outfalls from storm, sanitary, and combined
sewers, industrial sources, and the effluents
for direct consumption, agricultural, and
industrial needs must be part of the
watershed management strategy and part of
the decision support system. The urban
component will dominate many watersheds.
There are 405 urbanized areas with at least
50,000 people representing 63% of the
United States population living on less than
2% of the nation's land area (Bureau of the
Census, 1990). EPA's analysis suggests this
urban and urban fringe population area
contributes most of the stormwater pollutant
loads (EPA, 1995a).
Although the urban areas contribute
significantly to water quality impairment
problems, they are not the whole picture.
The States' biennial report under section
305(b) of the CWA estimated that 44% of
the Nation's rivers do not fully support their
designated use and assign 72% of the
problem to agricultural contributions. The
states also report 57% of the nation's lakes
fail to fully support their intended use, again
attributing most degradation to agricultural
use (EPA, 1994a). In analyzing the options,
CBEP planning tools must consider not only
urban contributions, but must incorporate all
significant watershed stressor sources.
Development in the watershed is an
extremely important factor affecting
ecological resources or drinking water
source areas. Watershed development
produces fundamental changes in the system.
This is related not only to urban areas, even
though the focus of this plan is on these
concentrations; we have seen much in the
past few years on the measure of impervious
area and the relationship to ecosystem
integrity. Similar relationships could be
given to the haul-road density in a forest or
to percent of an area in corn or soybeans. In
watershed management there will be some
practical limits to management associated
with the nature and magnitude of
fundamental changes, associated with
development, in the watershed.
A more comprehensive analysis of
the likely sources and magnitude of
pollutants from urban sources needs to be
accomplished. The sources addressed should
not only be land-use based, but also applied
materials (e.g., deicing chemicals,
pesticides/fertilizers, etc.), wear and leakage
(brake pads, tires, oil drippings and other
automotive sources), atmospheric deposition
(background, global, regional, and local
sources), dumped materials, illicit
connections, construction sediments and
other pollutants and natural sources. This is
a critical piece of information in deciding the
right balance between source and treatment-
based BMPs.
The watershed management strategy
must define the watershed threshold limit,
i.e., the level at which the cumulative
discharges exceed the natural ability of the
watershed to operate without loss of desired
function. Watershed analysis must
simultaneously consider the assimilative
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20
capacity of the system, the species-specific
no apparent effects concentrations, and the
threshold limits associated with the intended
use. When the cumulative discharges exceed
the threshold limits, the decision makers
must select between hard engineering
approaches for load reduction and softer
engineering approaches that increase the
watershed assimilative capacity (e.g.,
watershed restoration and BMPs). To select
among the various options, planners must
have the tools that will tell them the probable
cost, effectiveness, time-lapse until effects
are manifested, and longevity and reliability
of the techniques. Collectively, these
components comprise the watershed decision
support system.
The watershed management plan
must recognize the effects of under-
controlled wastewater and drainage outfalls
and evaluate plans to improve control system
efficiencies and increase the fraction of
controlled wastewater flows. Efforts
devoted to improving sewerage systems (see
Control Technologies section) will help
control metropolitan wastewater problems.
Combining the improved efficiency gained by
making use of various storage options,
altered operating conditions, and improved
rainfall probability statistics will provide a
projected reduction in releases from
combined sewer systems.
Results from research evaluating
optional system service methods and retrofit
strategies are critical parts of the support
system. For example, when is it better, as a
matter of policy, to operate treatment
facilities well beyond design capacity with
degraded plant efficiency to partially treat a
greater fraction of the total flow and thus
allowing lower discharge volumes of
untreated wastewater?
Abatement requirements for storm
flow pollution are forthcoming. Federal and
some State and local governments have
promulgated minimum treatment and control
standards. Developed and developing
regions can assess their experiences in
applying these controls to help others to
establish local water management strategies.
This collective information base must
become part of the watershed modeling
research to avoid repetition of errors and
incorporate successes. The systematic
documentation of the conditions,
intervention, and result is a critical step in
establishing a national decision support
system for separately sewered storm systems
and combined seAverage systems.
Distributing the information helps create a
feedback loop to assist local governments to
make incremental improvements.
Many organizations have developed
models that simulate facets of the watershed.
The Stormwater Management Model
(SWMM) is probably the most common
urban subwatershed model. Other models
exist for other parts of the watershed (e.g.,
CREAMS, QQS, SWRRB, HSPF, SUTRA),
water quality assessment (e.g., DYNATOX,
WASP, EXAMS), and chemical interactions
(e.g., MINTEQA2). Watershed
management must combine each of the issues
handled separately in these models. In order
for models to be accepted by potential users,
verification data is needed. Collecting these
data is a major effort including sampling,
analysis, and review of historical records
which has significant costs associated with it.
In fact, in many cases the high cost of
collecting these data are overwhelming and
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21
the models, no matter how valid, are never
applied.
A significant part of the watershed
research will emphasize more comprehensive
modeling and assessment tools to plan
control strategies better, understand the
limitations and uncertainties of the individual
and connected models, and promote
interaction among models. The interaction
of the surface water runoff with the
watershed requires a set of characterization
and assessment tools (see Characterization
and Problem Assessment section) to identify,
quantify, and finally model the cause and
effect relationships. This approach allows
decision makers to evaluate potential
scenarios as infrastructure needs place added
stress on watersheds and allows better
planning of WWF systems for newly
developed areas. Based on population
growth statistics, EPA identified developing
areas as a primary opportunity to control
new stresses on the watershed (EPA,
1995b).
Source water protection requires that
we close the gap in the understanding of the
water cycle by establishing the interaction
between surface water, particularly
stormwater, and groundwater. The question
of the surface water-groundwater interaction
will become increasingly important as
communities construct more impoundments
upstream of source waters to limit the
stormwater flow to surface waters.
Groundwater serves as drinking water for
approximately one-half of the country.
Infiltrating stormwater runoff contains
certain contaminants (Pitt et. al., 1996) that
can adversely affect groundwater (Wilde,
1994) while stormwater runoff can degrade
surface source waters. Some stormwater
infiltrating practices may prove inappropriate
because of the effects on potable
groundwater. Shallow groundwaters most
likely to be investigated are those that can
impact surface runoff and other surface
waters. The United States is facing similar
problems protecting surface drinking water
sources. In 1991, EPA proposed the Source
Water Protection Program as an initiative
under the new Safe Drinking Water Act.
This program encourages States to establish
a five-part baseline program to: (1) delineate
protection areas for both surface water and
groundwater, (2) assess the vulnerability of
those areas to contamination, (3) inventory
significant potential contaminant sources
within the protection areas, (4) collect and
review laws and controls for the areas and
the contamination sources, and (5) increase
public involvement to emphasize public
ownership of the source water protection
plan. The hydrology of surface flows
developed for aquatic protection in
conjunction with quality routing directly
transfers to surface source water protection.
Watershed management research will
develop techniques to reuse and reclaim
stormwater for beneficial purposes, defining
the conditions when secondary uses are both
desirable and economically possible. The
stormwater must go somewhere. Generating
societal benefits such as aesthetic and
recreational benefits or productive reuse
such as irrigation, fire protection, and
industrial water supply to lessen the demands
on alternate supplies is potentially the most
important part of the watershed strategy in
arid regions but will also apply in other
regions.
A truly holistic watershed
management approach will include many
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other salient features, practical interaction
with water supply, flood and erosion
control, reuse and reclamation techniques,
in-stream flow needs, and infrastructure
demands while protecting the watershed
environment including source waters. This
approach allows simultaneous design and
retrofits for the necessary retention and
drainage facilities. Part of the understanding
includes an estimate of the contribution of
contaminants, particularly acid rain and
particulates, from atmospheric deposition to
the watershed. Understanding the
interconnecting basinwide hydraulic and
pollutant loads affecting the receiving surface
water and groundwater is the first step in
obtaining optimum water-resource function,
pollution abatement and more expedient and
cost-effective water management programs.
Research Question
- What effective watershed management
strategies are available and how do
communities select the most appropriate
subset from these to match specific
watershed needs?
Research Needs
- Collate watershed management techniques
with critical information (water quality
impact, efficiency, total cost, sustainability,
etc.) from research projects and
demonstrations including stormwater reuse
and BMPs for urban, urban fringe,
agricultural (small and large farm), and
riparian areas for the various ecoregions in
the United States.
- Evaluate public-domain open-code
computer water flow and quality simulation
models to predict and analyze the
characteristics, impacts, and control options
in a watershed.
- Evaluate methods to predict ecologic
(biologic, habitat, physiochemical,
lexicological, benthic etc.) indices and
compare to measured (remote sensing and
direct) observation.
- Define standard measurements,
measurement procedures, data quality
objectives and "compatible with" GIS format
for data sharing across municipalities.
- Evaluate methods to predict quantity and
routes of sediment migration (including
channelization, stream bank and land surface
erosion, and bottom scouring) and to affect
control of contaminants associated with this
migration.
- Estimate the atmospheric contaminant
contributions to a watershed by linking air
quality measures to deposition.
- Demonstrate the methods to model
interactions between and limit deleterious
effects from stormwater runoff and source
water (surface and subsurface).
- Investigate the interaction between
stormwater runoff and the vadose zone soil,
near-surface soil, groundwater, sediment and
surface water.
Research Area - Toxic Substances
Impacts and Control
Past studies indicate that urban
stormwater runoff and CSO contain
significant quantities of toxic substances; a
number of the hazardous waste priority
pollutants have been identified. Without
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23
toxic and industrial stormwater runoff
problem assessment and abatement/control,
various hazardous substances cleanup and
control programs may be done in vain.
Additional investigation of the significance of
concentrations and quantities of toxic
pollutants with regard to their health effects
and ecosystem effects is required.
Evaluations have been made on the removal
capacity of conventional and alternative
treatment technologies and non/low
structural BMPs for these toxics (Pitt et. al.,
1995). From this, comparisons are needed
of treatment effectiveness with estimated
removal needs to meet water quality goals.
Based on these comparisons, advanced
treatment and control for toxic substances
may need to be developed.
Urban WWF is a major contributor
to the degradation of lakes, streams, and
rivers (Field and Turkeltaub, 1981; Pitt and
Bozeman 1982; Pitt and Bissonnette, 1984;
Field and Pitt, 1990; Pitt 1994; Herricks,
1995; Pitt, 1995). Organic and metallic toxic
contaminants in urban storm-induced
discharges (EPA, 1983; Hoffman et. al.,
1984; Fram et. al., 1987) can contribute
significantly to receiving-water degradation.
Pitt et. al. (1994) identified toxic pollutants
subsurface transport through the vadose
zone based on mobility and presence in
stormwater. Although the major impacts of
WWF toxic substances to receiving-water
ecosystems are long-term and chronic, they
can also cause immediate acute effects.
Fisher et. al. (1995) found that stormwater
discharges from winter-storm events from an
airport caused acute toxicity to fathead
minnows and daphnids.
In order to effectively control toxic
substances in storm runoff, their qualitative,
quantitative, and source characteristics must
be determined. Research must therefore
address source identification of toxic
substances in urban WWF and the
effectiveness of treatment technologies and
pollution prevention measures that could be
applicable to control toxic substance
discharges. In WWF, it is very easy to
identify toxic substances, but it is very
difficult to relate their presence to a defined
effect or impact. Previous sections of this
document have emphasized the complex
nature of WWF. Standard methods for
addressing toxic pollutants in receiving
waters and assessing direct impacts are
needed. The long-term impacts of toxic
substances to ecological systems will also
need to be addressed.
During wet-weather periods,
significant amounts of certain toxic
pollutants contained in urban storm runoff
may be associated with atmospheric
deposition (Gotham and Bidleman, 1995;
Hilts 1996). This has been demonstrated in
EPA's Great Lakes Waters Program, which
reported that about 90% of toxic pollutant
(e.g., arsenic, chromium, copper, lead,
mercury, dioxin, PCBs, PCDDs, PAHs,
TCDD, naphthalene, etc.) loadings to the
Great Lakes appear to result from airborne
deposition (Ratza and Mclntyre 1996). In
the Tampa Bay watershed, up to 27% of the
nitrogen entering the Bay comes from wet-
fall (rain-carried) and dry-fall (air-carried)
direct deposition to the Bay's surface. This
makes direct atmospheric deposition the
second largest Bay nitrogen loading source—
the largest being stormwater runoff
(Greening, 1996). Other kinds of
atmospheric deposition in the Bay watershed
include inorganic (e.g., heavy metals) and
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24
organic (e.g., PCBs and pesticides) toxic
substances.
Pitt et. al. (1995) reported that
industrial and commercial parking lots,
material handling and storage areas, and
vehicular service stations are also significant
contributors of toxic pollutants (e.g.,
petroleum hydrocarbons and heavy metals)
to WWF. Highway construction and use
affect the quality of receiving waters.
Sansalon et. al. (1995) found that lead and
copper are predominantly associated with the
suspended solids fraction in highway runoff.
Water quality in a creek below a highway
construction site indicated that even an
extensive system of temporary controls did
not adequately prevent significant amounts
of suspended sediment from entering
receiving waters (Maltby et. al., 1995). The
concentration of petroleum hydrocarbons
and heavy metals in water and stream-bed
sediments increased downstream of roadway
runoff and were positively correlated with
contaminant loading functions (i.e., length of
road drained/stream size). Such toxic
substances in sediments create a long-term
impact on ecological systems.
Another area of concern is copper
from automobile brake pads; this is a
significant source of copper to South San
Francisco Bay. EPA has been involved in an
effort to get manufacturers of copper brake
pads to voluntarily reduce or eliminate the
use of copper in brake pads. At a recent
forum on the subject, the manufacturers
stated that more research needs to be done
before they will agree to such a product
substitution plan. It appears that information
is lacking in the areas of fate, transport and
environmental effect of copper from brake
pads.
A major research focus is on
understanding how stormwater toxicants can
be prevented and controlled at the critical-
source areas to prevent entry into the urban
drainage system. Thus, the most cost-
effective pollution prevention strategies will
be evaluated for controlling toxicants at their
source. Research areas include: (1) pollution
prevention practices for industrial and
commercial sites; (2) deploying methods and
product substitution for lawn/garden care
and roadway chemicals; and (3) nontoxic
product substitution for materials of
construction and surface
coatings/preservatives exposed to rainfall-
runoff.
A significant proportion of toxic
pollutants in urban stormwater is dissolved
or colloidal in nature. In order to remove
this form of pollution from high-intensity
storm flows, development of effective, low
cost, and high-rate treatment processes
downstream of the storm runoff collection
system will be needed. More effective, new
flexible design approaches need to be
developed for retrofitting and/or improving
operations of conventional WWTPs and
enhancing treatment efficiency to control
toxic substances.
Bench-scale treatability studies have
been conducted on the toxic substances
removal effectiveness of sedimentation,
screening, filtration, floatation, aeration and
photochemical oxidation (Pitt et. al., 1995).
From these studies, two prototype
multichamber treatment trains (MCTTs)
installed in Minaqua and Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, at critical toxicant source areas
(commercial parking and vehicular service
lots) are being evaluated. The MCTT is
comprised of a grit chamber, lamellae
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25
settling chamber (with air flotation and
sorption pillows) and a filtration chamber in
series. The MCTT is demonstrating the
effectiveness of organic and metallic toxicant
removal, providing a mean Microtox toxicity
reduction of 91%.
The removal capabilities of newly
developed treatment processes and the
effectiveness of pollution prevention
methods for controlling these toxicants for
meeting water-quality goals will be throughly
evaluated. These evaluations will guide
future development of more advanced
techniques for minimizing toxicants from
urban WWF. Investigation of the
significance of concentrations and quantities
of toxic pollutants in receiving-water and
stream-bed sediments with regard to their
effects on health and the ecosystem are
included in this Research Plan.
Research Question
- How can we effectively prevent and reduce
toxic pollutant discharges to receiving waters
of the urban watershed?
Research Needs
- Develop and evaluate methods for
characterization of toxic pollutants in the
urban watershed during storm events.
- Develop and demonstrate methodologies
for the most cost-effective pollution
prevention strategies for controlling WWF
toxicants from their sources.
- Develop and demonstrate new, low-cost,
high-rate control/treatment technologies for
removing toxic pollutants from WWF and
evaluate their effectiveness relative to
meeting water-quality goals.
Research Area - Control Technologies
The options for control of pollutants
in WWF can be implemented at the source
by land management, in the collection
system, offline by storage, and/or in a
treatment plant. An integrated system that
combines both prevention and treatment has
often been found more effective than use of a
treatment alone. In the case of treatment,
many conventional processes are known to
be inefficient for WWF because of their high
volume of flow over a short time period
(Field, 1990a). More effort is needed
regarding the effectiveness of nonstructural
stormwater controls, such as public
education, recycling, preventing illicit
discharges, or catchbasin cleaning. Many
municipalities are focusing on non-structural
controls rather than the more costly
structural units. However, the municipalities
are uncertain which controls are most
effective. The 27 problem areas identified
by the Urban Wet Weather Advisory
Committee shows municipal concern on this
issue. The treatment-based research should
also continue, but with a balance for non-
structural options.
Land management includes
structural, low-structural, and nonstructural
pollution prevention measures to reduce
entrance of pollutants to the drainage
system. Proper land-use planning for new
developments considers land imperviousness,
population density, and total runoff
management (Field, 1990a). Making use of
natural drainage, direct storm runoff through
vegetative swales or into a network of wet-
weather ponds retards the flow of water
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26
downstream, preventing floods while also
reducing runoff pollutant concentrations
(Lynard et al., 1980). Detention/retention
ponds and drainage facilities required for
flood control can be simultaneously designed
or retrofitted for pollution control making
them dual-purpose facilities. Retention on-
site or upstream can provide multi benefits of
aesthetics, recreation, recharge, fire
protection, irrigation, including settling of
suspended solids (Field, 1990a).
Controlling the rate of stormwater
entry to the sewer (i.e., maximizing upstream
storage) with the use of a static vortex-type,
internal-energy dissipator can reduce
basement and street flooding and the need
for downstream sewer capacity as well as
pollution from overflow (Matthews et al.,
1983). Porous pavements have been shown
to provide storm-runoff attenuation by
enhancing soil infiltration and providing for
storage in the subbase (Murphy et al., 1981;
Goforth et al., 1983; Diniz et al., 1980).
Surface sanitation, such as control of litter
and chemicals, street sweeping, and proper
deicing practices, reduce downstream
pollution and terrestrial damage (Pitt, 1979;
Pitt, 1985). The land management concept
is an important area that needs increased
research efforts.
The collection system control area
pertains to management alternatives for
WWF drainage, interception, and transport.
These include: improved maintenance and
design of catchbasins, sewers, regulators,
tide gates, and remote flow monitoring and
control. Construction of separate sanitary
sewers is a relatively expensive alternative
that does not abate stormwater runoff
pollution problems and, thus, should be
rarely considered. If properly designed and
maintained, catchbasins can be effective for
reduction of suspended solids and associated
pollutants (Aronson et al., 1983). The WWF
Program has already developed (Lager,
1977) design criteria for optimal catchbasin
configurations, based on a hydraulic
modeling project. The WWF Program has
also developed manuals on new sewer design
to minimize in-sewer sedimentation and on
upgrading CSO storage. Flow capacity in
the sewers can be increased permanently
with the use of liners or temporarily by
polymeric injections that reduce the wall
friction (Sonnen, 1977; Kaufman and Lai,
1978).
Inappropriate or illicit connections
cause sanitary and industrial contamination
of separate storm-drainage systems, which is
a problem of a national scope. Tracing and
isolating cross-connections must precede
selection of the appropriate corrective
action. More research is needed to
characterize the numerous non-storm water
discharges which enter storm sewers
unpermitted. Which ones are significant and
should be focused upon by municipalities for
elimination? Recent work done by the
University of California (Los Angeles) found
little information in this regard.
Conventional flow regulators and tide
gates occasionally malfunction, which results
in excessive overflows (American Public
Works Association, 1970a and 1970b).
Improved design devices, such as the fluidic
regulator (Freeman, 1977) and the positive
control gate regulator, have been
demonstrated in several U.S. cities. The
dual-functioning swirl flow regulator/solids
concentrator has shown promising potential
for simultaneous quality and quantity flow
control (Field, 1973; 1996).
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In-sewer combined wastewater
storage and flow routing can maximize the
use of the existing sewer capacity. This
approach can be maximized by employing
remote monitoring of rainfall, flow levels
(and sometimes quality), at selected locations
in the network, together with a computerized
console for positive regulation. This concept
has been proven in several U.S. cities to
provide significant storage capacity at low
cost (Watt et al., 1975; Leiser, 1974).
Advances in rainfall monitoring systems by
radar may further refine the controls of in-
sewer storage and routing (Jacquet, 1996).
Although never tried, separate storm sewers
and channels can also be retrofitted with
flow regulators for in-channel and in-pipe
storage, which would optimize their storage
capacity and the downstream WWTP. Also,
the use of control hardware, such as
swirl/helical type regulators, for separate
stormwater runoff can reduce the cost of
conventional storage tanks, which would
otherwise be needed. The resultant
concentrate from the swirl treatment of
stormwater is of smaller volume and requires
smaller storage tanks than those needed for
collection of the entire volume of untreated
stormwater. Application of flow regulators
should be demonstrated on separate storm
sewers for diverting the stormwater to a
sanitary/combined sewer or to storage
facilities for treatment at an existing WWTP.
Storage facilities may be constructed
inline or offline. These facilities can be
constructed inland and upstream, on the
shoreline, or in the receiving water. In
addition to storage, other functions of these
facilities may include sedimentation (and
associated toxics removal), DWF
equalization, flood protection, flow
attenuation to enhance receiving stream
assimilation, and hazardous material spills
capture. Conventional storage facilities are
usually concrete tanks or earthen basins. A
recently developed cost-effective storage
alternative is the in-receiving water flow
balance method (Fordran et al., 1991; Field
etal., 1995). This innovative storage
method captures the WWF between plastic
curtains suspended from floating wooden
pontoons. After cessation of the overflow,
the WWF is pumped to the treatment plant.
This storage method is low cost because of
cheap construction materials and no need for
land space. Because storage is a necessary
consideration for WWF sewerage system
optimization, the WWF Program has and
continues to support development of storage
concepts.
Construction of new end-of-pipe
WWF treatment facilities without upstream
storage is usually the most expensive and
least desirable control alternative. Also it is
relatively difficult to treat WWF using
conventional methods due to the adverse,
intense and intermittent flow conditions and
unpredictable shock-loading effects. These
adverse conditions are particularly
detrimental to microorganism-dependent
biological processes. Physical/chemical
treatment techniques have shown more
promise than biological processes in
overcoming storm shock-loading effects but
even these processes require modifications
and demonstration of their effectiveness for
WWF (Field, 1990). More research
concerning the benefit/cost of WWF control-
treatment is needed. Many municipalities
question whether the benefits of the program
justify the costs. Recent EPA reports such
as "Liquid Assets" are useful, but still too
general. What would help in convincing
skeptical municipalities would be
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"monetized" estimates of the benefits of the
cleaner water stemming from the WWF
pollution abatement program in comparison
to the cost of the program. Further, since
costs are extremely important in selecting the
best option to improve water quality, not
only will the efficiency of the treatment
controls proposed be evaluated, but also the
percentage of total storm runoff treated and
the percentage of storm runoff bypassed.
Providing this information will help in
determining the cos^enefits of the
treatment systems.
Currently, municipalities are in the
process of implementing the Nine Minimum
Controls for CSO under the EPA's CSO
Control Policy. This requires increasing
capacities of the WWTP and conveyance
(sewer) systems to provide for treatment of a
larger portion of CSO (EPA, 1995c).
To reduce capital investments needed
to retrofit and enlarge the existing WWTPs
as well as construct new ones, the search for
suitable WWF treatment technologies is
directed toward high-rate operations that can
handle maximum loadings. An example of
such technology can be a clarifier with an
improved solids settling ability attained by
the use of an inert microcarrier with chemical
addition and/or lamellae plates as used by the
Microsep, Actiflow and Densadeg systems.
Advanced clarifiers claim to attain 85 percent
removal of suspended solids while being only
one-third or less the size of the conventional
ones at the same hydraulic loading. Because
of their small size and high efficiency, these
advanced clarifiers may provide
municipalities with a cost-effective
alternative for retrofitting older plants or for
building new installations where space is at a
premium.
A variety of high-rate treatment
methods show a potential to handle the
WWF. A majority of them need to be
demonstrated at full scale. These include
such processes as:
- physical separation with and without
addition of chemicals (enhanced settling,
fine-mesh screening, filtration, dissolved air
floatation, activated carbon, continuous
deflection separator, high-gradient magnetic
separation) (Maher, 1974; Drehwing et al.,
1979; Nebolsine et al., 1972; Innerfield and
Fordran, 1979; Gupta et al., 1977; Meinholz,
1979; Shelley et al., 1981),
- constructed wetlands (Chan et al., 1982;
Hickock et al., 1977),
- biological (biodisks, biofiltration, trickling
filters, contact stabilization) (Agnew et al.,
1975; Field et al., 1976; Homack et al.,
1973), and
- disinfection (rapid chemical oxidants with
and without mixing to increase contact with
microorganisms, UV oxidation (Glover and
Herbert, 1973; Moffa et al., 1975, Leitz et
al., 1972; Pontius et al., 1973).
All treatment processes, or their
combinations, can be adjuncts to the existing
WWTPs or can serve as remote satellite
facilities at overflow points or upstream of
the outfall. It may be cost-effective and
practical to use WWF treatment technologies
at the source of pollution upstream to
prevent the pollutants from entering the
drainage system and causing additional
burden to the WWTP. An example of such
an approach is upstream treatment of
stormwater runoff from critical-source areas,
such as parking lots, storage areas, and
especially vehicular service stations.
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As a final point, there may be
alternatives to the conventional design of
combined sanitary and storm sewerage
systems, household and business plumbing to
minimize WWF more cost effectively and
address new uses, and potentially different
configurations to the standard sewerage
systems practiced throughout the United
States today.
Research Question
Is there a better way to design and operate
sewerage systems given the concern for
urban WWF pollution? Are there emerging
technologies that can be used for treating
WWF at a reasonable cost?
Research Needs
- Develop and demonstrate cost-effective
land management strategies that would rely
on pollution prevention approaches to
reduce the load of pollutants and high flows
entering the drainage system.
- Develop and demonstrate advanced
collection system design alternatives to
reduce WWF overflows, optimizing in-sewer
storage and flow routing systems in
conjunction with storage basins and WWTPs
and evaluate whether new sewerage systems
should be separate or combined.
- Develop and demonstrate high-rate and
high-efficiency treatment technologies
suitable for retrofitting existing WWTPs as
well as for new installations.
- Demonstrate and evaluate the use of
natural and created wetlands for
management of WWFs in
urban areas, including collection of design
and operational data for optimal
performance.
Research Area - Infrastructure
Improvement
The aging condition of our cities and
an associated deterioration of infrastructure
(buildings, highways, utility systems, water
distribution systems, sewerage systems)
leads to an emerging research area
addressing how best to construct, maintain
and repair both existing and new
infrastructure. The costs are staggering; the
national investment in sewers alone
approaches $1.8 trillion. Excessive flow to
the sewer system from I/I robs the capacity
of the sewer system and negatively affects
proper operation of the entire sewerage
system; I/I has caused surcharging of sewers,
WWTPs and pumping stations. Building
connections to the street sewers or laterals
can contribute as much as 70 to 80% of the
infiltration load. With current technology,
building connection rehabilitation may not be
economically feasible because of the shear
number of connections. Less expensive
technologies are needed to detect leaks,
forecast structural failure, construct I/I
resistant sewer lines, and repair/rehabilitate
sewers as well as other utility pipeline
systems.
With regard to sewers, the first step
should be to evaluate the extent of the
problem using national I/I studies, determine
alternative rehabilitation approaches, project
costs for renovation, and determine if new
sewer systems should be designed
differently. Ideally, control of infiltration
should take place during sewer pipe
installation. New methods of sewer sealing
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should be evaluated before major
rehabilitation or replacement is undertaken.
Further, the existing Underground Storage
Tank Test Apparatus at the WWF Program's
Edison, New Jersey location will be modified
so that it could be used to develop and test
leak detection equipment for municipal
pressurized-water distribution systems and
possibly heat distribution systems. Since
30% of the cost of water, on a national basis,
is due to leaks from the distribution system,
such research will fulfill a national need and
result in a significant cost savings.
Additionally, it is important to demonstrate
and evaluate various acoustic technologies
and alternative methods relative to their use
in high pressure systems to prevent pipeline
explosions.
Research Question
What are the best approaches to rehabilitate
existing and construct new sewer systems in
urban settings?
Research Need
- Develop and demonstrate new technologies
that can be used to construct, maintain, and
repair new and existing sewer infrastructure
at an acceptable cost.
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PART II - WWF
RESEARCH
PROJECTS
This part of the Research Plan
presents ongoing and proposed project
descriptions along with their five-year
resource allocations and scheduled outputs.
These projects are presented according to
the topic areas of: characterization and
problem assessment; watershed management;
toxic substances impacts and control, control
technologies, infrastructure rehabilitation and
research assistance. The descriptions are
broad; more specific narratives with
schedules of outputs will be prepared as the
projects are funded and implemented.
Additional projects may be suggested by
others. Tables listing all of the projects by
technology area are provided in Appendix B.
A major emphasis will be placed on
the development of intramural capabilities
including a laboratory and pilot-plant
facilities. The WWF Program will also
continue to identify and develop
intramural/infrastructure projects which will
arise during the course of this five-year plan
due to the needs of the user community.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
Results from the research conducted
in the four technical areas will be the basis
for numerous research and technology
transfer outputs from this program, which
will include peer-reviewed journal articles
and books and state-of-the-art compendium,
guidance, methodology/ protocol, and
planning/design user's manuals along with
national/international conferences, seminars,
and workshops. The integration of the
technical needs of the end users and the
development of these outputs will be critical
to the success of the Program. An integrated
research and technology transfer program
will continually seek to link key research
information to the needs of the end users. In
some cases, results from research and other
activities conducted by other public and
private sector organizations will be
incorporated into technology transfer
products through cooperative projects.
Key technology transfer product user
groups will likely include metropolitan
sewage, stormwater control, and utility
agencies, cities and towns, Federal and State
regulators, environmental engineering
consultants, watershed management
associations, and others. To maintain close
contact with these user groups,
national/international organizations that
represent these users will be relied on for
input in identifying user needs and will be
encouraged to participate in the development
of technology transfer products. These
organizations include the American Society
of Civil Engineers' (ASCE's) Urban Water
Resources Research Council, International
Association of Hydraulic
Research/International Association of Water
Quality's Joint Committee on Urban Storm
Drainage, Association of Metropolitan
Sewerage Agencies, National League of
Cities, Conference of Mayors, Water
Environment Federation/Water Environment
Research Foundation (WERF), American
Public Works Association/American Public
Works Association Research Foundation,
National Association of Counties,
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International City Managers Association,
National Association of Towns and
Townships, American Geophysical Union-
Hydrology Section, American Institute of
Hydrology-Urban Hydrology Section, and
National Ground Water Association.
Technology transfer product types
will be carefully selected to be the most
efficient in meeting the needs of the users.
Products will include traditional delivery
mechanisms such as manuals and
conferences, and more state-of-the-art
electronic and PC-based products such as
CD-ROM and Internet-based products.
Technology transfer plans will be
developed on an annual basis to identify key
user needs to be met and important research
results to be delivered to users. These plans
will be developed cooperatively by the
UWMB and Technology Transfer Branch
within NRMRL with the active participation
of the OW, the Regions, States and other
key client groups.
In an effort to outreach to the public
and establish a central repository for research
documents in the WWF area, the NRMRL
will investigate establishment of a database
system using the Internet to include:
- literature database, which would include
abstracts of all pertinent WWF writings, with
the most relevant documents highlighted;
- performance database, which would include
summary tables of performance data (keyed
to references) relative to WWF pollution
prevention, BMP performance, control
technology treatment efficiencies, capital and
O&M costs, and inventories of
municipal/industrial control systems;
- full text document database, which would
include the key WWF documents in their
entirety (initially public domain documents
only) that could be searched online and
downloaded to the user's PC;
- characteristics database, which would be
used for model calibration and by similar
urban areas for problem assessment and only
contain WWF quality/quantity data which
had been prescreened to meet high quality
database acceptance criteria;
- access door to other databases;
- calendar of events;
- message center for WWF user groups; and
- bulletin board for posting important notes,
new regulations, progress reports of
research/program studies.
The intent would be to feature "one-stop
shopping" for the WWF professional. This
will be incorporated into the NRMRL
database system currently underway.
COORDINATION WITH OTHERS
The Urban Watershed Management
Branch (UWMB) of EPA's NRMRL has the
lead for implementing WWF research
throughout ORD, in support of the OW
program office and national needs. The
branch will implement the WWF Program by
collaborative teaming with OW and other
NRMRL units (see Appendix A), including
the: (1) Microbial Contaminants Control
Branch to assess the microbial impact of
WWF and determine better and truer
indicators of public health risks and assess
WWF disinfection technologies; (2)
Treatment Technology Evaluation Branch
for the development and evaluation of WWF
treatment options; (3) Water Quality
Management Branch for research on impacts
and related control-decision modeling; (4)
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Subsurface Protection & Remediation
Division and Air Pollution Prevention and
Control Division for the development of
strategies and models that interface
stormwater with groundwater and air-
pollution deposition, respectively; and (5) the
Technology Transfer and Support Division
for the development of technology transfer
products, electronic media systems, and
seminars. The WWF Program will also
coordinate research with its sister ORD
organizations (see Appendix A), including
the National Center for Environmental
Research and Quality Assurance, the NERL,
the NHEERL, and the National Center for
Environmental Assessment. Finally, the
WWF Program will work to establish links
with the Ecosystem Restoration and
Contaminated Sediments Research
Programs.
ORD is also working to establish
other mechanisms for conducting high
quality WWF research and making it
available to the public. The WWF Program
is already coordinating with the research
programs of the Army Corps of Engineers'
Water Resources Institute, the Water
Environment Research Foundation (WERF)
of the Water Environment Federation and
the American Society of Civil Engineers'
(ASCE's) Urban Water Resources Research
Council. These organizations are
establishing various mechanisms to
coordinate and transfer research from their
efforts and those of other organizations
including municipalities.
On the international front, the WWF
Program is coordinating research with
Environment Canada and the Joint
Committee on Urban Storm Drainage of the
International Association on Hydraulic
Research/International Association on Water
Quality. It will also participate in a
workshop on WWF supported by a bilateral
agreement between the EPA and Japan's
Ministry of Construction and is exchanging
information with the United Kingdom,
France, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore,
Sweden, Switzerland and other countries..
PROJECTED WWF PROGRAM
RESOURCES
The projected WWF Program
resources are summarized in Table 2. In
FY96, the program was built up in Edison,
New Jersey to include approximately 8.0
person years. Additional personnel from
other NRMRL units will be involved in the
research. As current activities are phased
down in other programs at Edison, additional
manpower will be devoted to this research
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Table 2. Past and Projected NRMRL WWF Program Resources
FY
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
Person Years
8
12
14
16
16
Funding ($K)
500
2,834
2,034*
4,000
4,000
* this decrease reflects a disinvestment of $800K being considered by the Agency for FY98.
area. By the end of FY96, the intramural
effort in NRMRL will increase to 8 person
years in the WWF area. In FY97 the
Program will be at full strength (12 person
years) with modest growth in succeeding
years.
Wet weather flow research resources
(financial and staff) are insufficient to
support the full urban watershed research
needs. UWMB will allocate research
resources across the watershed to protect
and restore ecology with a strong emphasis
on water quality indicators directly affecting
the intended societal use reflected under
States' CWA 305 reporting. Early research
effort will place more emphasis on urban-
specific conditions with less resource
allocation on entering water. UWMB does
not envision emphasizing research efforts on
drinking water but recognizes nonstructural
protection tools implemented for source
water protection transfer directly to other
applications. The same physical processes
govern the efficiency of a buffer strip
installed along drinking water sources, urban
or nonurban receiving waters. The science
and engineering does not fundamentally
change because of the application.
SPECIFIC PROJECTS
Specific projects to implement the
WWF Research Plan are presented below.
These are either ongoing, will be initiated in
FY97, or will be initiated in later years. The
projects are listed according to need, but
many projects address several needs so there
is overlap. Further, some needs are not yet
addressed. The descriptions given are
summaries of the scope of work associated
with the project; these may change as the
project is implemented. ORD and OW
intend to provide quarterly progress reports
for each project and make them available
over the Internet.
The projects are funded by several
mechanisms: through the NRMRL research
program (either in-house using infrastructure
funds or extramurally), through section
104(b)(3) of the CWA (either from OW or
the Regions), as special projects
Congressionally mandated, through EPA's
Environmental Technology
Initiative/Environmental Technology
Verification program, as ORD/NCERQA
grants, or as joint projects of mutual benefit.
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Projects with NRMRL fimding are led by
NRMRL personnel. For projects with other
sources of funding, NRMRL is working
cooperatively with the lead organization,
generally in the role of technical advisor.
Projects receiving FY 97 NRMRL funding
and ongoing projects are considered to have
the highest priority. The FY97 projected
funding is summarized in Appendix B.
This plan will be updated annually in
a joint effort by ORD and OW. ItisEPA's
policy that all research funded be consistent
with this plan. However, there will be
projects in the WWF arena that are neither
research, development or demonstration
(e.g., training and outreach) that will be
funded by the Agency but are not covered in
this plan. Additional projects will be added
in the area of 104b3 grants funded by EPA's
Regional offices.
Over the coming years, ORD expects
to strengthen its in-house research programs.
To a great extent, competitive cooperative
agreements will be the mechanism of favor in
implementing this WWF Research Plan.
Research Area 1 - Characterization and
Problem Assessment
Research Question ~ What are the
characteristics of WWF and impacts on
receiving-water bodies, and what tools are
available to best measure them?
Research Need - Review, improve and
develop monitoring methodologies and
equipment to measure the characteristics and
impacts, including pathogenicity, of WWFs.
Research Projects
1.1. Pathogen Detection The project
objective is to develop a suite of tests for
determining the total disease-producing
capacity of receiving-water bodies. This
suite should detect harmful microorganisms
originating from nonhuman sources and
nonenteric pathogens that the current
indicators do not signal, as well as
fecal-based microorganisms which are
detectable with current methods. One goal
will be to produce a method which is quick,
reliable, and inexpensive. UWMB will team
with NHEERL and NERL to conduct
epidemiological studies, as needed, to assist
in the determination of indicators for total
WWF pathogenic disease risks. This project
will be funded by NRMRL.
1.2. Fecal Contamination Current methods
for detecting and quantifying human enteric
viruses do not detect infectious hepatitis
(hepatitis A virus (HAV)) and gastroenteritis
(Norwalk-type viruses). Current methods
for detection and assay of bacterial
pathogens are unreliable in detecting the
Salmonella and enterohemorrhagic E. coli.
Waterborne disease outbreaks caused by
Cryptosporidium, Norwalk and hepatitis A
viruses, and even Salmonella have occurred
despite acceptably low levels of indicator
bacteria. Reliable and practical methods for
direct detection of enteric microbial
pathogens and improved indicators for them
in water are needed.
The goal of this project is to develop
specific methods for direct detection of key
enteric pathogens of human and animal fecal
waste origin, and indicators for waterborne
pathogens. Field studies will be done to
evaluate improved fecal contamination
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detection methods for pathogens and
candidate indicators associated with known
human and animal fecal waste sources that
impact water resources. Emphasis is placed
on pathogen methods that detect and
quantify infectious and viable organisms, and
indicator methods that are predictive of
pathogen presence and concentrations,
distinguish human from animal fecal
contamination, and identify sources of fecal
contamination in water and watersheds. The
goal is to develop methods for assessing
control measures for water pollution,
ecology of disease-causing microbes in
contaminated water, outbreaks of
waterborne illness in humans, and
performing quantitative risk assessments of
waterborne enteric diseases. This project is
funded through ORD's NCERQA Grant
Program.
1.3. CSQ Monitoring This project will
provide a methodology with widespread
applicability for statistically calculating CSO
quality data based on historical rainfall and
WWTP quality data. The methodology will
result in a low cost and expedient way of
developing CSO quality data when compared
to conventional monitoring methods. The
WWF Program final report entitled,
"Combined Sewer Overflow Characteristics
from Treatment Plant Data"
(EPA-600/2-83/049), which uses WWTP
influent and rainfall data to give CSO
information as well as regression and/or
derived distribution approaches similar to
Tasker and Driver or DiToro and Driscoll,
respectively, will be among the previous
work used in the development of this project.
Excessive simplification will be avoided;
there is abundant meteorological and
physical data (e.g., from GIS) to allow a
better answer.
The extrapolation of inflow WWTP
characteristics to CSO characteristics may
not be meaningful. Clearly, it is for
economic reasons that CSO monitoring is
being investigated and it is likely that the
results found from a project of this sort
would be better than no CSO monitoring
whatsoever. However, the character of CO
quality is a function of the sewer system, the
outlet control device, the service area and
the rainfall characteristics. While it may be
possible and even meaningful to derive a
statistical relationship between CSO
characteristics and inflow WWTP
characteristics, this regressive relationship
may be site-specific. Using this statistical
model for other CSO systems may not be
proper, thereby reducing the project's overall
worthiness.
This project will also consider wet
weather monitoring programs across the
country to determine what is known about
the design of wet weather monitoring
provisions of a NPDES permit and the
relationship of monitoring to the
effectiveness of the stormwater management
program. Based on the results of the
investigations, a document may be prepared
describing how to best design effective wet
weather monitoring programs and data
evaluation methodologies to judge the
effectiveness of stormwater management
programs. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
Research Need - Determine WWF
receiving-water impacts and impaired
beneficial uses that can be attributed to
chemical, biological, and especially physical
stressors.
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Research Projects
1.4. Receiving Water Impacts This project
will finalize a draft user's guide for the
assessment of WWF impacts (including
lexicological) on receiving water. It will be
published by CRC-Lewis, Inc., in FY97.
This project is funded by NRMRL.
1.5. WWF Physical Stressors WWF
receiving-water impacts attributable from
such physical stressors as high-flow velocity
(high-shear force), temperature change and
channel modification will be assessed
resulting in the development of
methodologies for preventing these impacts.
To the extent possible, physical impacts on
receiving waters will be documented,
especially habitat destruction, sedimentation,
and bank erosion. Stormwater quantity
management techniques and effects on land
at the headwaters of urban streams will be
considered. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
1.6. Urban Landfill Pollution This effort
will comprise a joint project that is just being
initiated with the USGS. The Norman
landfill in Oklahoma has contaminated an
alluvial aquifer adjacent to the Canadian
River. NRMRL-Ada would join forces with
the USGS to work toward the building of
practical assessment techniques and tools to
determine the influence of loading from a
landfill to a surface water during WWF.
This could be done through in-house efforts,
including site characterization, analytical
chemistry and modeling. This project will be
funded by NRMRL in support of funding by
others.
1.7. Small Stream Impacts This project will
investigate percent imperviousness as a
factor of receiving-water impairment and the
effectiveness of BMPs at reducing receiving-
water impairment. The use of stormwater
environmental indicator tools will also be
demonstrated. This project is funded by OW
under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
1.8. Large River Pollution This project
(cooperative agreement with the Ohio River
Valley Water Sanitation Commission -
ORSANCO) is developing a methodology to
assess the wet-weather impacts of CSOs and
other point and NPSs of pollution within a
watershed on a large river (the Ohio River)
and for evaluating the effectiveness of
alternative CSO control measures. The
project includes twelve tasks starting with
the review of existing data and running
through the development and implementation
of dry- and wet-weather monitoring
strategies and water quality modeling. The
project is fully funded and will be completed
in FY97. This project is funded by OW
under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
1.9. Evaluation of Health Risks This project
will develop and test a methodology to
evaluate the human health and other
environmental risks associated with separate
SSOs. The methodology will enable a user
to quantify the magnitude and frequency of
overflows for a specific area using available
information. In addition, the risks of these
overflows will also be estimated based on
specific water uses in an area. This research
will focus on two primary aspects of the
problem, specifically the persistence and
fates of pathogens and toxicants. This
project is funded by OW under its 104b3
Cooperative Agreement.
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1.10. Water Body Impacts Model The
focus of this study is to develop a baseline
assessment of the risks to aquatic life, and
human health in the Duwamish River and
Elliott Bay in King County, Seattle, WA.
The project will result in the development of
a calibrated model of the Duwamish River
and Elliott Bay by which to predict the fate
of contaminants discharged to these bodies
of water. During this effort, the percent of
total contaminants contributed by King
County CSOs, separated stormwater
systems, and secondary effluent discharged
during peak-flow diversions will be
estimated. Model inputs will be developed
for chemicals and microorganisms from King
County CSOs, separate storm drains, and
secondary effluent to estimate the
concentrations in the water column,
sediment, and fish. This effort will assess the
following: 1) the baseline risk to aquatic life
and humans who use the River and Bay; 2)
the benefits to be gained by various levels of
CSO control; and 3) the risks resulting from
discharge of effluent to the Duwamish during
peak flows. Data collection is scheduled to
cover two wet-weather seasons. It is
planned that work will conclude in the 1997
wet season. Assessment of risks and benefits
will be completed at the end of 1997. This is
a WERF Category 2 project funded by
others.
1.11. Fate of Nitrogen Inputs The nutrients
moving from watersheds to estuaries is
strongly conditioned by transformations
taking place at the interface of rivers and
tidal waters, the oligohaline zone. Nutrients
will be up taken by planktonic algae,
freshwater marshes, submerged macrophytes
and sediment exchange. Current models of
export to the coastal zone that deal with
these transformations have difficulties
quantifying nutrients at the ecosystem scale.
The oligohaline reach is also a vital
productive area for many highly bio-
diversified species of animals. This zone is
often a nursery area for commercial or
recreational species which depend on the
dynamic, production cycle of the oligohaline
reach to support their high biomass and
growth rates.
This project will run a test by
introducing 15N-enriched inorganic nitrogen
to the oligohaline reach of the Parker River,
the site of an ongoing Land Margin
Ecosystem Research program. Previous
whole-system labeling experiments in
forested watersheds, lakes and rivers have
demonstrated the feasibility, power and cost
effectiveness of the tracer addition approach.
By adding the tracer to this reach, some
questions about the transformations of
materials from the watersheds as they enter
tidal waters and influences of changing land
use can be answered. This project is funded
through ORD's NCERQA Grant Program.
1.12. Influences of Land Use The project
will study stream ecosystems that are
influenced by land use. Biological
monitoring of water quality will be measured
with diversity and biotic indices that affect
rates of community metabolism and cycling
of nutrients. The objectives are to
determine: (1) the relationship between
current monitoring programs and ecosystem
function as measured by rates of nutrient
transport and metabolism, (2) variants
among streams undergoing anthropogenic
stresses, and (3) biological attributes to
ecological function of the habitat, stream
reach, and watershed landscaping.
Specifically, urban, suburban,
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agriculture and forested land uses around
watersheds of the Chattahoochee River in
Atlanta, Georgia, will be examined. Instead
of studying watersheds from the cumulative
NFS nutrient enrichment and episodic toxins,
the data measured of stream ecosystem
function will be compared and analyzed
against hydrology, water quality, and
biological community structure collected by
the United States Geologic Survey under the
National Water Quality Assessment
program, and to riparian and watershed
attributes at the basin scale using a
geographical information system (GIS). The
data are relevant for Federal natural resource
management to embrace ecosystem of NFS
pollution control, and invertebrate and
vertebrate biological monitoring of
ecosystems. This project is funded through
ORD's NCERQA Grant Program.
Research Need - Assess the effectiveness of
disinfection techniques using measurements
that account for microorganisms occluded by
particles.
Research Project
1.13. CSO Disinfection This project will
assess the effectiveness of various
disinfection techniques for CSO. The
technologies to be evaluated include rapid
oxidants (e.g., ozonation, chlorine dioxide,
perchloric acid) and UV disinfection. For
disinfection with rapid oxidants, mixing and
dosing (higher and/or two-stage) techniques
will be evaluated. Techniques for measuring
microorganism population that accounts for
microorganisms that survive in the interstices
of the larger organic particles and in the
micro-fractures of soil grains (e.g., blending
the samples, sonification) will be used in
assessing disinfection effectiveness. This
project will be funded by NRMRL.
Research Need - Evaluate the impact of and
extent to which WWFs contribute to the
contaminated sediment problem in the
United States.
Research Project
The evaluation of the impacts of
contaminated sediments will be addressed in
EPA's Research Plan for Contaminated
Sediments. The evaluation of the extent to
which WWFs contribute to the problem will
be addressed under this research plan. See
Project 2.16.
Research Area 2 - Watershed
Management
As with all research projects, there is
overlap between the goals of the projects in
watershed management; most projects
address several research needs. Therefore, in
this section the research needs are correlated
with multiple projects, as shown below. This
is followed by descriptions of the watershed
management projects.
Research Question - What effective
watershed management strategies are
available and how do communities select the
most appropriate subset from these to match
specific watershed needs?
Research Need Collate watershed
management techniques with critical
information (water quality impact, efficiency,
total cost, sustainability, etc.) from research
projects and demonstrations including
stormwater reuse and BMPs for urban, urban
fringe, agricultural (small and large farm),
and riparian areas for the various ecoregions
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in the United States.
Projects 1.10, 1.12, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5,
2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 2.14
Research Need Evaluate public-domain
open-code computer water flow and quality
simulation models to predict and analyze the
characteristics, impacts, and control options
in a watershed.
Projects 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8,
2.13,2.14
Research Need Evaluate methods to
predict ecologic (biologic, habitat,
physiochemical, toxicological, benthic, etc.)
indices and compare to measured (remote
sensing and direct) observation.
Projects 1.5, 1.8,2.3
Research Need Define standard
measurements, measurement procedures,
data quality objectives and "compatible with"
GIS format for data sharing across
municipalities.
Projects 1.3, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.11,
1.12, 1.13,2.3,2.4,2.13,2.15
Research Need Evaluate methods to
predict quantity and routes of sediment
migration (including channelization, stream
bank and land surface erosion, and bottom
scouring) and to affect control of
contaminants associated with this migration.
Projects 1.6, 1.7, 1.8,2.3
Research Need Estimate the atmospheric
contaminant contributions to a watershed by
linking air quality measures to deposition.
Project 2.3, 2.9
Research Need Demonstrate the methods
to model interactions between and limit
deleterious effects from stormwater runoff
and source water (surface and subsurface).
Projects 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8
Research Need Investigate the interaction
between stormwater runoff and vadose zone
soil, near-surface soil, groundwater,
sediment and surface water.
Projects 2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8
Project Descriptions
2.1 Watershed Management Developing an
all encompassing watershed strategy will be
the cumulation of the five-year WWF
research plan. This project will provide a
method for assessing watershed management
programs for improving WWF control,
meeting watershed quality standards, and
determining receiving-water and ecosystem
impacts. Products will include: a user's
guide, computer models, databases, manuals,
reports, journal articles, seminars, and
workshops and training documents. This
project should address: (1) the use of
environmental indicators to determine the
relative condition of urban streams and lakes,
such as the Index of Biotic Integrity and
Trophic Index, respectively, (2) whether
groundwater standards can be used to test
the suitability of groundwater for drinking,
(3) determine the relative importance of flow
changes, habitat degradation, and poor water
quality to the condition of urban streams and
lakes, (4) determine the achievable uses of
urban streams and lakes in each ecoregion
using environmental indicators, such as the
Index of Biotic Integrity, (5) determine
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threshold values for factors, such as percent
imperviousness and width of vegetative
stream corridors, that degrade the quality of
urban lakes and streams, (6) calibrate and
verify urban runoff models capable of
estimating pollutant loadings from different
sources and predicting the effectiveness of
different urban BMPs, (7) determine the
runoff coefficients for grassed landscaped
areas, (8) determine the importance of
volume control to the integrity of different
types of streams, (9) determine washoff rates
of pollutants off of different types of urban
surfaces, such as streets and lawns, and (10)
determine the relationship between
watershed protection techniques and the
achievement of designated uses in the
receiving waters.
The WWF Program will coordinate
partnerships with organizations currently
developing or implementing watershed
management plans. Two noteworthy
examples are the Chesapeake Bay watershed
management plan, a multi-state cooperative
project that is including research on air
deposition and New York City's Jamaica
Bay watershed management plan. The
Watershed Management Institute is
beginning research to develop a relationship
between watershed imperviousness and
stormwater impacts on receiving waters for
stream systems in the mid-Atlantic and arid
western regions of the country. Some are
leery of the goal here, however; placing
pervious buffer strips, swales, detention or
retention basins between the impervious area
and the receiving water will completely
change the flow and quality characteristics of
the runoff. The attempt to develop simple
cause-effect relationships could lead to
municipalities setting maximum
imperviousness limits, as was done in the
City of Austin, Texas. The resulting battle
between developers and the City was fierce
and the City lost, resulting also in the loss of
jurisdiction over the developments in
question. Developing a user's guide will
require solicitation identifying a municipal
partner willing to implement a watershed-
management plan. Funding would be
required to support the municipal partner
with intramural technical support (i.e.,
sampling, computer modeling, design,
identifying pollution prevention techniques,
community awareness literature, monitoring
program, and coordinating laboratory
analysis with other partners). Background
sampling must begin early in FY97 to
achieve any measurable effects by the close
of the planning period. The sampling
program and maximum watershed size would
depend on the availability and leveraging of
funds.
Research is also needed on
institutional needs associated with watershed
management. These include public
involvement/participation; development of
regulations at the local/State/federal level;
financing, statutory and case law; public
"acceptance/rejection" issues; staffing needs
to properly address stormwater management;
how to assure that proper maintenance will
occur (public vs. private maintenance is
particularly important), and other subjects of
this kind. Other issues include how multiple
city and county governments can work
together, equitable financing schemes, and
prioritizing observed problems in a way
acceptable to all key parties. This project
will be funded by NRMRL.
2.2 New Urban Areas The objective of this
project is to develop a method to design
integrated urban WWF collection, control,
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and treatment systems for newly urbanized
watersheds or upstream additions to older
systems using advanced concepts. Two
decades of enormous changes in urban-
storm-drainage practices have brought
concerns for both flood and water pollution
controls that require a new set of designs for
collection-treatment. As more regulations
are put in place requiring permits and
treatment of separately sewered stormwater,
the choice between installing a combined-
sewer or sanitary- and separate-storm-sewer
system becomes relevant again. Regardless
of whether the sewer system is combined or
separate, modifications to sewer and
treatment designs can be incorporated into
either system to reduce overflows. The new
urban sewerage system design approaches
will consider inline and off-system storage,
real-time/inline water level/flow monitoring
and routing for reducing direct overflow
discharges. Larger diameter sewers with
steeper slopes and narrow-bottom cross-
sections can add storage capacity to the
system while eliminating accumulation of
DWF deposits. The design of new WWTPs
should include treatment for WWF (i.e.,
CSO and SSO), and not just treatment of
peak DWF.
EPA awarded two cooperative
agreements: one to the University of
Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and one to
the ASCE for study of WWF and pollutants
transport in newly developed areas and for
development of design methodologies that
integrate WWF control, collection, and
treatment systems for newly urbanizing
watersheds. These projects will take three
years to complete; the first step will be to
review the current state-of the-art in
controlling urban watershed WWF and then
design methodologies will be developed.
This project is funded by OW under its
104b3 Cooperative Agreement.
2.3 Watershed Modeling This project will
begin by reviewing existing computer models
related to urban (e.g., SWMM, SLAMM)
and non-urban (e.g., HSPF, CREAMS,
SWRRB) WWFs, developing a working
definition of a watershed within the modeling
context, and identifying controllable and
uncontrollable watershed-contaminant
sources. Computer watershed models are
proposed to evaluate the effects of drainage,
intersurface sources, stormwater runoff,
pollutant control techniques and various
pollutant sources in a watershed. The results
obtained from these computer models not
only need to be validated but the model will
need to be calibrated for each study effort.
Any modeling techniques employed in these
research projects are likely to be used as
examples in future watershed investigations.
The project will emphasize public-
domain open-code models and determine
which models are compatible with the
watershed approach. Each model has
individual setup needs. This project will
identify these needs and evaluate the
sensitivity of model output to these needs to
establish data quality objectives and define
methods and formats for multiple community
data sharing. These models will then be
studied to determine how they can be
integrated to (1) include all drainage
(stormwater, CSOs, SSOs, andNPSs) and
receiving waters, (2) interface surface
stormwater runoff with groundwater and
surface water, (3) include contaminated and
non-contaminated sediment migration
patterns, (4) evaluate human and ecologic
risk from toxic substances and pathogens and
include their treatment/disinfection
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efficiencies, (5) include control practices and
pollution prevention effects, and (6) include
atmospheric deposition. Improving the
existing models will most likely require
outside expertise and state-of-the-art
computer hardware and software requiring
extramural funding. Teaming will be
necessary with other ORD components and
universities with expertise in the areas being
studied. To assure the products meet the
needs of the contractors and consultants, the
project will include a workshop to assure
these needs are included. In order for
models to be accepted by potential users,
verification data is needed. Collecting these
data is a major effort including sampling,
analysis, and review of historical records
which has significant costs associated with it.
In fact, in many cases the high cost of
collecting these data are overwhelming and
the models, no matter how valid, are never
applied. The project will also consider
development of a GIS approach for
integrating land use data with environmental
data to demonstrate how the conditions in
the receiving water change as you change the
land use activities. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
Some concerns relative to this project
have been raised during the peer review
process which will be addressed as this
project proceeds. One reviewer indicated "I
question the value of this project. Where
will the product be used, where will we ever
see a project with enough money to gather
the data required to calibrate. Our ability to
model physical/chemical/biological processes
already far exceeds our resources to collect
the data necessary to calibrate and verify
them."
"The description states that public
domain software will be reviewed. Because
of lack of support for stormwater software
development during the past 15 years in the
U.S. and concurrent emerging interest in
Australia, Canada and Europe much of the
improvements in software have been made
there. Even though much of this software is
proprietary it would be worth evaluating it to
see if it would be worth acquiring. Thus, we
suggest including review of this newer
software in the proposed research projects."
"If models are to be improved, we
need information on the true sources of
pollutants that appear in urban runoff,
including the relative contributions from
pervious and impervious areas. Land surface
sources include pavement deterioration,
automobiles, atmospheric fallout, erosion,
fertilization, vegetation (e.g., leaves), etc. It
is difficult to evaluate and improve water
quality models without fundamental research
on the sources of pollutants that appear in
the runoff. Additional research is also
warranted on the "washofF mechanism, e.g.,
relationship of washoff load with shear
stress, rainfall energy and other hydraulic and
hydrologic characteristics. All of this is in
addition to the need for sediment-related
research described above. Similar needs
apply regarding how to model BMPs. We
need to understand the fundamental removal
mechanisms in order to include them in
models. For example, a later research
project (item 4.9) deals with riparian forest
management. Riparian zones have been
suggested as a BMP by many groups,
including foresters. But how do we model
their effects? Regarding models, prediction
of water quantity is better than water quality,
but there are still many areas that need
improvement. One fundamental hydrologic
issue is related to scale: we simulate large
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urban areas with input from a single
raingage. What adjustments need to be
made to account for spatial variability? This
is especially important for continuous
simulations. Many other important quantity
modeling issues and needs could be listed.
Finally, regarding models, support for model
maintenance and updating is needed. The
most useful models currently are those that
have enjoyed some level of federal (e.g.,
HEC) and/or quasi-voluntary support (most
of the current EPA models). But the latter
models could be (and need to be) so much
better with a modest, but firm and
continuous level of federal financial support.
There is also a need for better user interfaces
for most of the EPA NPS models currently
used, especially SWMM."
"These models are of another
technological era and, while useful, may not
be the best tools for the future of WWF
engineering. The time and effort required to
achieve these many linkages may not be
worth the benefits received. Perhaps the
WWF research plan should look to the
ongoing work performed at the USAGE
HEC. While HEC's mission is different from
that of the EPA's, the modeling philosophy
may not be far removed. HEC has
essentially re-written the computer code of
many of its more useful models, retaining the
aspects of each that have proven effective
from previous versions, while adding many
new features. Included in these new features
(besides a windows front end) are seamless
linkages between models. If the more useful
WWF models were identified, along with the
aspects of each that have proven useful over
the past 25 years, perhaps a more useful tool
for the future could be developed. While a
major effort, the idea should be investigated
within this research area."
2.4 Source Water Protection This project
will demonstrate watershed-scale innovative
methodologies to control stormwater runoff
and diffuse contaminant sources from urban,
agricultural, and forested areas specifically
for the protection and enhancement of the
quality of source waters. A cooperative
effort is being considered between EPA,
New York State and New York City as part
of the New York City Watershed Protection
Program proposed under SI7765 funded at
$105 M ($15.0 M/FY for seven FYs
beginning in FY97). The UWMB WWF
Program may collaborate with city, State,
and EPA personnel to develop a research,
development, and demonstration project(s).
This multiple part project would include
comprehensive monitoring and surveillance
(including GIS) and coordinated modeling to
plan, design and implement low- and non-
structurally intensive watershed controls. It
may also address development and
evaluation of protocols for assessing
watershed controls. The controls of interest
would be significantly less expensive than the
alternatively proposed large-scale filtration
facilities. The controls would include
pollution prevention practices, (e.g., material
substitution using less-or non-toxic types and
controlled use of environmentally harmful
chemicals), upstream biofiltration practices
(e.g., grass swales, buffer strips for pollutant
quality and flow attenuation) induced
infiltration ponds and trenches; upstream
hot-spot pollutant source treatment (e.g.,
multi-chambered treatment trains at vehicular
service stations); upstream impoundments
and ponds; flow diversion and drainage
modifications; and wetlands treatment.
Control effectiveness will be
measured by (1) before and after
implementation comparison of reservoir
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impacts, (2) influent and effluent efficiency
evaluation for specific processes for
enhanced watershed management modeling
impacts predictions, and (3) side-by-side
comparisons of controls against no controls.
This project will be funded by NRMRL in
support of funding by others.
2.5 Stormwater Reuse Develop subpotable
reuse techniques and strategies for WWFs.
Reuse capabilities to be investigated include
waters for: industrial cooling and processing;
irrigation; aesthetic and recreational ponds;
and land application of sludges. This project
will be funded by NRMRL.
2.6 Stormwater-Groundwater Interactions
This project will close the gap in the water
cycle by interfacing surface water,
particularly stormwater runoff with
groundwater. Research has not adequately
investigated toxicant and pollutant routing to
groundwater. Natural and promoted
stormwater infiltrating the soil contains
contaminants that can adversely affect
groundwater. The same contaminants in
surface flows degrade surface waters. Using
conventional infiltration practices to treat
and reduce stormwater runoff may be
inappropriate if the effects on this water
impair groundwater quality. A potential
research investigating tool for WWFs
between the surface and subsurface is
initially finger- printing water isotopes in a
watershed during storm events.
Sediment migration is a serious
consideration at the watershed scale.
Accumulation and depletion can destroy
habitat. Stream bank erosion and bottom
scouring reduce sinuosity, ripple-pool series,
etc. that can shorten residence time, increase
water temperature, decrease dissolved
oxygen, and otherwise reduce the
assimilative capacity of the receiving waters.
Sediment control in channels, marinas, piers,
and ports resulting from bank erosion,
bottom scouring, and land surface erosion is
expensive. The problems are amplified when
the sediment is contaminated. Research
efforts will examine predictive tools and
control practices.
Generating a more complete
understanding of the groundwater
connections to surface water is critical to
completing the understanding of the water
cycle, contaminant transport, and source
water protection. This project will interface
stormwater models containing untreated and
treated runoff vectors with subsurface and
groundwater models. Furthermore, it will
interface subsurface models with surface
water models and related impacts
assessments.
In a related project proposed for
NRMRL internal grant funding by the Water
Quality Management Branch naturally-
occurring isotopes 180,2H, and 3H will be
used with selected chemical parameters to
describe the components, pathways, and
residence time of subsurface WWF
discharging into surface receiving waters. A
small hill slope adjacent to a nontidal stream
will be instrumented for time-series
measurements in the vadose and saturated
zones to produce a time-variant model
explaining the water exchange.
Advances in stable isotope mass
spectrometry enable tracing storm-induced
infiltration through the water column to the
receiving water in appropriately instrumented
field sites. We plan to initially focus on
measuring water molecule isotopes followed
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by a wider array of isotopes.
This work will identify pathways and
residence times for WWF associated with
receiving waters. It will then couple the
isotopic tracer results with an improved
catchment-scale and mass balance model that
relate isotopic measurements and
hygrometric parameters of WWF.
Since some receiving waters in urban
watersheds are associated with brownfields,
determining the fate of contaminated waters
resulting from rain events on brownfields
may be possible (variably flushed into
receiving waters during storm events,
infiltrate toward the regional water table;
rejoin surface runoff, or remain perched for
years). Performance assessment of storm
flow abatement methods involving
infiltration may be enhanced by
understanding subsurface runoff
mechanisms.
These objectives then will attempt to
answer: (1) Under multiple land uses in an
urban watershed, can isotopes discriminate
subsurface storm flow from direct surface
runoff resulting from WWFs? (2) Does
subsurface storm flow contribute
significantly to receiving waters? (3) Can
residence times or turnover times be
estimated for shallow subsurface brownfield
waters? (4) Is shallow contaminated
groundwater regularly flushed from storm
events, infiltrate toward the water table, or
remain perched for long periods? (5) Can
isotopic techniques help performance
evaluation of source controls and collection
system controls for abating CSOs? This
project will be funded by NRMRL.
investigates the hypothesis that natural
attenuation in the vadose zone and saturated
zone mitigates unpreventable pollution
deposited and transported by WWFs.
Through literature and data collection,
review, and analysis, and through in-house,
extramural, and cooperative research and
monitoring efforts, key WWF scenarios
where the hypothesis is true, false, or
uncertain will be identified and characterized.
This project will provide information, data,
and critical analyses to support decisions
about the applicability and effectiveness of
natural attenuation against other aggressive
and expensive approaches for detoxifying or
immobilizing WWF transported pollution.
This project will be funded by NRMRL.
2.8 Vadose Zone Current vadose zone
models assume steady state flow with
rainfall events being incorporated as an
annual average input. It is necessary to
incorporate transient rainfall events resulting
in surface water drainage to evaluate the
influence on vadose zone chemical
transport. Channeling of runoff into
vegetated areas to reduce loading to surface-
water bodies may generate large transient
vadose zone fluxes and associated rapid
transport of contaminants into groundwaters
or from groundwater to discharge zones.
The importance of these phenomena need to
be evaluated for specific WWF problems,
rather than accepting the convention
assumption of steady flow. After evaluation,
appropriate incorporation of transient vadose
zone models with surface and subsurface
water models can be made. This would tie
well into current efforts for the drinking
water research area. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
2.7 Natural Attenuation This project
2.9 Atmospheric Deposition Atmospheric
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deposition may be a significant contributor of
organic (PCBs, PAHs, etc.) and inorganic
(lead, zinc, etc) contaminants to the total
watershed load beyond the control of the
Community Based Environmental Protection
communities. This project will begin by
reviewing the sulfur deposition (as acid rain)
in the model of acidification of groundwater
in catchments (MAGIC), in collaboration
with the air research division of NRMRL.
EPA used this model in the Direct/Delayed
Response Project assessing different
deposition scenarios on 200 watersheds in
the eastern United States. Follow on efforts
will review and monitor the differing
nitrogen deposition projects within EPA's
National Estuary Program in Tampa Bay,
Florida and various other pollutants
deposited from the atmosphere. Integrated
relationships will be made between air
pollution and associated controls and their
contribution to stormwater pollution. The
results of these reviews will direct outyear
research projects. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
2.10 Mill Creek Watershed Plan The
purpose of this project is to develop an
integrated watershed-management plan to
assess and control CSOs and other pollution
sources within the Mill Creek Watershed in
Ohio. The plan will establish a process and
develop decision criteria for selecting
appropriate and cost-effective WWF controls
that provide long-term improvements in the
watershed. The plan will also identify and
resolve barriers (e.g., institutional, financial,
legal, etc.) to implementing a consensus plan
for resolving the complex pollution and
ecosystem problems in the watershed. The
ultimate goal of the project is to achieve
community-wide consensus on an integrated
implementation plan for the attainment of
water quality and ecosystem goals. This
project is funded by OW under its 104b3
Cooperative Agreement Program.
2.11 Catoma Creek Watershed Plan The
purpose of this grant is to implement a
comprehensive management plan for
improving water quality by controlling SSOs
and other wet-weather pollution in the
Catoma Creek Watershed in Alabama. The
plan will focus on the long-term control of
pollution sources in the watershed and the
formulation of alternative strategies to
address these sources. The plan will also
bring about a coordinated decision-making
process for addressing required action to
achieve water quality improvements
throughout the watershed and will provide
periodic evaluation of the plan's
effectiveness. This project is funded by OW
under its 104b3 Grant Program.
2.12 Stormwater Control/Impacts The
project goal is to demonstrate the
implementation of innovative stormwater
control practices and monitor the biological
and water-quality improvements of the
receiving water. Missing in current
stormwater programs is a demonstration of
the benefits, on a system-wide basis, of
retrofitted or new controls. Past research
efforts and demonstration projects have
examined water pollutant discharge
reductions associated with specific control
practices. Some also examined receiving-
water problems associated with untreated
stormwater. This project will develop and
demonstrate "critical-source area controls"
and will measure the receiving-water
response to retrofitted controls in a
developed watershed. This project is funded
by OW under its 104b3 Grant Program.
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2.13 Watershed Model - Case Study This
project would be part of the overall effort in
UWMB proposal "Watershed
Management". Comprehensive watershed
modeling will attempt to combine the EPA
SWMM/HSPF surface watershed models
with the EPA WhAEM/USGS MODFLOW
groundwater models to represent urban
baseflow and stormwater response, including
pollutant transport. The Anacostia River
ultimately flows into the Potomac River and
the Chesapeake Bay. The river is listed by
the White House Task Force on Ecosystem
Management among the its seven priority
areas and is an important watershed within
the EPA Chesapeake Bay Program. A
coordinated research project would need to
be developed between the NRMRL-Ada and
its cooperators for the groundwater
modeling, along with UWMB and its
cooperators for the surface watershed
modeling and the USGS-Towson, Maryland
for database and application support. Each
participant would likely needs a minimum of
S100K per year of extramural support.
Model verification through new data
collection would require an additional
investment, e.g., natural isotope
characterization with NRMRL-Cincinnati.
This project will be funded by NRMRL.
2.14 Watershed Ecosystem Model This
objective of this project is to develop
integrated knowledge and new tools to
enhance predictive understanding of
watershed ecosystems including processes
and mechanisms that govern interconnected
dynamics of water, nutrients, toxins, and
biotic components to achieve sustainable
ecosystem management at the watershed
scale.
The three specific research questions
are: (1) What are the quantitative, spatially
explicit and dynamic linkages between land
use and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem
structure and function? (2) What are the
scale of quantitative effects of various
combinations of natural and anthropogenic
stressors on watershed ecosystems? and (3)
What are effective ways to measure changes
in landscape including both marketed and
non-marketed components and how effective
are alternative mitigation approaches,
management strategies, and policy options to
increasing this value? The proposed research
is to: (1) integrate ongoing and new scientific
studies over a range of scales from small
microcosms to the Patuxent and Choptank
river watersheds in Maryland and (2) hold
workshops involving the full range of
scientific, government and citizen
stakeholder groups to communicate results
and refine and adapt the research agenda.
This project is funded through ORD's
NCERQA Grant Program.
2.15 WWF Information Repository The
objective of this project is to provide
information to the general public by the
establishment and maintenance of an Internet
World Wide Web (WWW) site. This site
will consist of three major sections: a
repository of relevant reports and documents
online (including a database of planned or
ongoing research projects), WWF
characterization data, and WWF treatment
control technologies data. A home page for
NRMRL-Edison will be developed. The
repository will contain titles, abstracts and
full text of relevant EPA documents and
reports. WWF characterization data
collected during the 1970's and entered into
EPA's STORET database will be converted
into a format suitable for searching, viewing,
and retrieving through the WWW. Some
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have expressed concern that the quality of
the early STORE! data may be poor; EPA
has screened it in the past and will continue
to do so to assure that it is the best data
possible. More recent WWF
characterization data will also be included.
Process descriptions of WWF treatment and
control technologies, cost and efficiency
data, and an interactive (online form) for
answering frequently asked questions about
the technology performance and cost will be
included. Information regarding the process
descriptions, cost and performance data shall
be collected by a number of sources
including existing EPA documents, vendor
information, published literature, online
sources, vendors and municipalities. We will
review the USGS WWW site for Texas as a
model for how to develop a site to include all
the kinds of data and information being
proposed, including fundamental "raw"
water quality/quantity data, such as NPDES
sampling. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
2.16 Sediment Impacts and Control Three
separate sediment issues will be investigated
under this Plan: (1) contaminated sediment;
(2) erosion, scouring, and sedimentation
within the watershed unrelated to
contamination; and (3) inclusion of sediment
and predeposited sediment in the watershed
management strategy and models.
Sediment migration is a serious
consideration at the watershed scale.
Accumulating and depleting sediment can
destroy habitat. Stream bank erosion and
bottom scouring reduce sinuosity,
ripple-pool series, etc. that can shorten
residence time, increase water temperature,
decrease dissolved oxygen, and otherwise
reduce the assimilative capacity of the
receiving waters. Sediment control in
channels, marinas, piers, and ports resulting
from bank erosion, bottom scouring, and
land surface erosion is expensive. The
problems are amplified when the sediment is
contaminated. Research efforts will examine
predictive tools and control and reduction
practices (BMPs).
Sediment can act as a sink for
contaminants entering the water. EPA's
Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
(OWOW) conducted a national survey that
identified areas representing huge volumes of
contaminated sediment. All WWFs
potentially contribute to contaminated
sediment. We anticipate most research effort
will emphasize natural attenuation and
containment as outlined in EPA's
Contaminated Sediment Management
Strategy (EPA, 1994c). The past EPA
WWF erosion-sedimentation subprogram
will also be reviewed as a basis for this
effort. One peer review commenter
questioned the value of tracking sediment
migration. He indicated: "We know it's a
problem, so let's spend our resources
developing better ways to keep it from
getting into our waterways, and on ways to
remove the sediment if it is a detriment to the
ambient ecosystem". We will consider this
as we develop this project.
This project will be funded by
NRMRL. We will tie the WWF research on
contaminated sediment directly to the
contaminated sediment research plan. We
will complete this link when that document is
completed.
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Research Area 3 - Toxic Substances
Impacts and Control
Research Question - How can we
effectively prevent and reduce toxic pollutant
discharges to receiving waters of the urban
watershed?
Research Need - Develop and evaluate
methods for characterization of toxic
pollutants in the urban watershed during
storm events.
Research Projects
3.1. Toxics' Characterization/Treatment
Earlier phases of this project: (1)
characterized toxic substances in stormwater
and CSO, (2) demonstrated that stormwater
runoff from critical-source areas (e.g.,
parking lots, storage areas, and especially
vehicular-service stations) contribute most of
the toxic pollutants to stormwater, (3)
conducted bench-scale stormwater toxicants
treatability studies, (4) produced a users
guide for the investigation of inappropriate
non-stormwater connections into storm-
drainage systems, and (5) developed a draft
user's guide for the assessment of WWF
receiving water impacts, and (6) a report
comparing the performance of various
storm-inlet devices. The major focus of the
current phase is to better understand how
stormwater toxicants can be controlled
upstream at these critical-source areas or
"hot spots" prior to entering the WWF-
drainage system with the use of a special
upstream treatment device, the
multichambered treatment train (MCTT). A
pilot-scale MCTT has been successfully
demonstrated. Two full-scale
demonstrations have been installed in
Minaqua and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a
third is proposed. These facilities will
continue to be evaluated during the current
phase. In addition, a pilot-scale study for
the optimization of media for removal of
toxic substances is being conducted and
supported by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service's Forest
Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin
(Project "Natural Fiber Filtration"). This
project is funded by NRMRL.
3.2. Toxics' Testing/Assessment This
project will develop a wet-weather toxics
assessment protocol which integrates
existing, standardized impact assessment and
analysis procedures with time-scale specific
analyses to support the assessment of both
short-term and long-term changes in
receiving-water system condition or quality.
For the typical wet-weather event or
discharge the emphasis will be placed on
criteria that meet wet-weather discharge
event characteristics, not organism based
procedures. In this wet-weather assessment
protocol, time-scale considerations are the
basis for the selection of appropriate
assessment procedures. Further effect
assessment focuses on measures of direct
toxicity because toxicity is produced by both
the presence of a contaminant
(concentration) and the time-scale (duration)
of the exposure. This concentration/duration
of exposure relationship is the foundation for
the development of procedures for any
toxicity analysis, and is particularly important
when considering time-scale
toxicity/receiving-system impact assessment
procedures.
Because time-scale
toxicity/receiving-system effect analysis is at
the core of wet-weather impact assessment,
the proposed protocol is built around
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toxicity-based receiving-system assessment
procedures. The first step includes a review
of existing toxicity testing procedures to
identify proven and/or standard methods
applicable to wet-weather analyses. In
standard methods, such as whole effluent
toxicity (WET) testing procedures, the time-
scale established in the procedure is based on
the time required to produce a specific
response, (e.g., LC50 or EC50) in the species
selected for testing. This protocol is
currently being tested and refined as part of a
WERF sponsored research project.
Furthermore, the protocol will also be
applied at the King County, Washington
study being conducted on the Duwamish
River estuary and Elliott Bay.
This project will provide the
information necessary to use "equivalent"
toxicity tests to preclude exceedances of
State numeric and narrative water quality
criteria so that we can move forward with
the application of the WET program to
WWFs. Validation studies will be
considered. The use of approved methods
are paramount for acceptability in the
application of State water quality criteria.
Additionally, the project should use
freshwater toxicity test protocols and not the
West Coast marine toxicity testing species.
If the marine species are used the
information will apply only to a limited
number of facilities; most WWF discharges
are to freshwater streams. This project will
also consider the following: (1) determine
impact of toxic pollutants on stream biota
during low flow periods, (2) determine
toxicity of WWF using in-situ long-term
mortality testing, (3) determine if one type of
pollutant is more responsible for observed
toxic effects than the other pollutants, (4)
determine the effect of WWF on fish
behavior using in-situ testing, (5) determine
the quantity of contaminated sediment that
must be present in an urban stream to make
long-term exposures to low flow fatal to fish,
and (6) determine which particle sizes
contain most of the toxic pollutants. This
project will be funded by NRMRL.
Research Need - Develop and demonstrate
methodologies for the most cost-effective
pollution prevention strategies for
controlling WWF toxicants from their
sources.
Research Projects
3.3. Toxics' Pollution Prevention The goal
of this project is to determine the most
effective pollution-prevention strategies for
watershed protection. Research areas
identified over a decade ago in EPA's
Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP)
(EPA, 1983) study include the prevalence of
high exceedances of copper, lead and zinc in
urban receiving waters. A national estimate
of potential pollutants emanating from
construction material, surface coatings, and
man-deployed chemicals and their toxicity
will be analyzed for potential risk. Pollutants
will be categorized using the following
general source areas: residential,
construction, industrial, agricultural,
municipal, and commercial. Within these
general source areas, critical-source areas
(highly toxic runoff sources) will be
identified. In addition, careless storage and
drainage practices in the upstream areas of
the watershed will be identified. A risk
analysis for pollution-prevention techniques
(product substitution; controlled use of
chemicals; and improved handling, drainage,
and storage practices) will be conducted.
Further, an analysis of the fate, transport and
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environmental effect of copper from
automobile brake pads as well as automobile
accessories (highways, gasoline stations,
automotive businesses) will be addressed.
Work on characterization and source control
was done for the City of Bellevue in 1995.
Their major recommendations were: (1) a
watershed approach should be used, rather
than a land use-based approach, for
monitoring and characterizing stormwater
discharges and water quality, (2) emphasis
should be placed on source control rather
than "more" water quality monitoring, and
(3) water quality standards should be revised
to reflect the episodic nature of stormwater
discharges.
This project will be funded by NRMRL.
Research Need - Develop and demonstrate
new, low-cost, high-rate control/treatment
technologies for removing toxic pollutants
from WWF and evaluate their effectiveness
relative to meeting water-quality goals.
Research Projects
3.1. Toxics' Characterization/Treatment
This project is described in detail above.
3.4. Natural-Fiber Filtration The U.S.
Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) and the
WWF Program will enter into an interagency
agreement for evaluation of WWF-filtration
media comprised of natural agro and wood
fibers. The filtering media has and is being
studied by the FPL. Research for application
of the filtering media to WWF treatment will
be conducted by the University of Alabama
(UAB) under a separate project. This
research will investigate the adsorption,
desorption, and ion-exchange capabilities of
wood- and agro-fibers. Based on
stormwater pollutant removals, the FPL and
UAB will attempt to optimize the design and
fabrication of the filtering fabric. The goal of
the project is the development of a
replaceable and marketable filtration device
with an inexpensive, renewable, and
disposable filtering material capable of
removing dissolved toxic organics and
metals. Sand filters are a proven technology
for the removal of particles from WWF;
however, they are ineffective at removing
dissolved or colloidal pollutants. Activated
carbon, which can remove dissolved
pollutants, is expensive and accordingly an
alternative medium is much needed. This
project will be funded by NRMRL in support
of funding by others.
3.5 Toxics' Risk Assessment This project
will analyze WWF toxicants in much greater
detail than what has been done so far.
Without toxic substances in storm runoff
assessment and control, our various
hazardous substances cleanup and control
programs (under CERCLA/SARA, RCRA,
TSCA, etc.) may be done in vain. Additional
investigation of the significance of
concentrations and quantities of toxic
pollutants with regard to their health effects
or potential health effects and ecosystem
effects is required. A need exists to evaluate
the removal capacity of conventional and
alternative treatment technologies and BMPs
for these toxics and to compare their
effectiveness with estimated removal needs
to meet water quality goals. From this
comparison further advanced treatment and
control for toxic substances will need to be
developed. This project will be jointly
funded by NRMRL and NERL/NHEERL.
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Research Area 4 - Control Technologies
Research Question - Is there a better way
to design and operate sewerage systems
given the concern for urban WWF pollution?
Are there emerging technologies that can be
used for treating WWF at a reasonable cost?
Research Need - Develop and demonstrate
cost-effective land-management strategies
that would rely on pollution prevention and
low-structural approaches to reduce the load
of pollutants and high flows entering the
drainage system.
Research Projects
4.1. Rouge River Restoration This is a
national project to demonstrate effective
solutions to water quality problems facing an
urban watershed highly impacted by WWFs
and develop potential solutions and
implement projects which lead to the
restoration of water quality in the Rouge
River, Wayne County, Michigan. The
project is developing certain tools for
watershed analysis and planning. Using an
environmental GIS, hydrological and water
quality models, and a watershed management
decision-support system developed through
this project, the Rouge River Watershed will
be able to be managed in a comprehensive
and rational manner. These tools will be
formulated for use on the Rouge River, but
will be designed to allow transferability to
urban watersheds throughout the country.
Although river characteristics, rainfall
quantities, land use, sewer-drainage system
configurations, and other factors will be
different, the methodology used within the
Rouge Project, and the analysis procedures
and systems which are being developed, will
be adaptable for use by other planners.
A large body of data has been
collected in connection with this project.
Data sets include: stream water quality
profiles in wet and dry weather; synoptic sets
of source and in-stream water quality data in
both the combined- and separated-sewered
areas of the watershed; and sediment quality
data. These data are available on CD ROM,
and can be viewed under a Windows
Application called Data View. In addition, a
number of QA/QC manuals have been
developed to cover the sampling program,
including field-sampling techniques, chain of
custody, laboratory analysis, and data
reporting and analysis.
The project is evaluating various
WWF control prototypes, including eleven
different designs of CSO detention basins for
capture and treatment efficiency and a
number of different stormwater runoff
quality control BMPs including nine
structural BMPs, five wetlands, and four
developed watersheds in which source
controls are being intensively applied. This
is a Congressionally mandated project.
4.2 BMP Manual The OWM has requested
that the WWF Program write a guidance
manual on the use of stormwater control or
BMPs to minimize cross-media transfer of
contaminants during WWF conditions.
Many BMPs have been installed without the
benefit of past performance data; therefore a
timely review of the performance and
longevity of the most appropriate practices
should be made to assist the user community.
This guide will evaluate the relationship of
rainfall rates, imperviousness, and influent
pollutant concentration to BMP
performance, especially the removal of
metals and toxic organics. It will also assess
the effect of programmatic BMP (e.g.,
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education for pesticide usage and waste-oil
recycling), maintenance and safety
considerations, applicable federal
regulations, and computer modeling. Simple
controls associated with development
options including the effects of roof drain
disconnections, pavement drainage
disconnections, and grass filters will be
addressed. National cost estimates will be
considered, including data from "Nationwide
Costs to Implement BMPs" (American
Public Works Association, 1992). This
report identified possible capital costs of up
to $407 billion and annual
operations/maintenance costs of $542 billion
necessary to meet water quality standards for
stormwater discharges. This project will be
funded by NRMRL in support of funding by
OW.
4.3 Industrial Runoff Control Industrial
stormwater runoff permits are required for
various industries. This project will
demonstrate various low-structurally (e.g.,
better housekeeping practices) and
structurally-intensive control techniques at a
large industrial site. The project will be
conducted with the cooperation of an
industry. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
4.4. Management for Small Communities
Phase II of the OWM stormwater permitting
program will require small communities, i.e.,
with populations less than 100,000, to be
permitted for stormwater discharges. This
project will produce a manual for stormwater
management and pollution control for these
small communities. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
4.5. Roadway/Airport Deicing This project
will update two existing EPA documents on
deicing salt pollution control for
storage/handling and application practices
("Manual for Deicing Chemical Storage and
Handling" (EPA-670/2-74-033) and "Manual
for Deicing Chemicals: Application
Practices" (EPA-670/2-74-045)). Roadway
deicing is a major environmental problem
causing pollution of drinking water and
automobile and highway damage costing the
nation approximately ten billion dollars a
year. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
4.6. BMP Design/Effectiveness This project
involves the collection of all available
existing information pertaining to the
effectiveness of structural and non-structural
stormwater management BMPs and pollution
prevention measures. ASCE and WERF will
cooperate to compile this information into an
accessible database that can be used by all
stakeholders in the stormwater field. ASCE
will identify areas of information that are
missing or incomplete that need to be
addressed by future research areas. WERF
is conducting a similar effort to develop
WWF treatability impact evaluation
protocols and will cooperate in
data/information compilation with ASCE. A
specific evaluation of source vs treatment
controls will be conducted which addresses
under what circumstances one or the other
should be chosen by use of cost/benefit
information. This project is funded by OW
under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
4.7. Urban BMP Effectiveness The
purpose of this project is to define four
different geographic areas and four different
types of watersheds and relate level of
watershed imperviousness to receiving-water
impairment. This project is funded by OW
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under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement.
4.8. Runoff Control Using Compost This
project will evaluate using compost as a soil
amendment to: increase stormwater
infiltration, reduce the quantity and/or
intensity of surface and subsurface
stormwater runoff, and reduce transport of
dissolved or suspended phosphorous (P)
from stormwater runoff by soil sorption.
Research has demonstrated compost's
effectiveness in improving the soil's physical
properties of porosity and macropore
continuity. Compost's chemical properties
are also valuable for their potential to sorb
harmful metals and nutrients. It is a low cost
and low maintenance way of reducing
polluted stormwater runoff from public and
private turf areas constructed on soils with
low permeability. It reduces storm-flow
pollution while also reducing solid waste by
recycling composted material. A bench-scale
study, examining maximum sorption rates for
P in glacial till and compost-amended glacial
till soils, will complement the field
examination. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
4.9 Riparian Forest Management The
objective of this project is to develop a
model urban forest management plan for
NPS pollution control within the
Manahawkin Creek Watershed in New
Jersey. A major component of the plan
would be recommendations, based on
established USDA Forestry Services
principles or management of the riparian
forests within the watershed to enhance the
ability of these riparian forests to remove
sediment and other pollutants from the urban
stormwater runoff. Manifestations of this
project would include a workable urban
forest management plan which would be
implementable by Stafford Township as part
of its overall stormwater management plan.
In addition, the plan would be structured so
that it could also be used as a model by other
communities to aid them in establishing their
own urban forest management plans for NPS
pollution control. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
Research Need - Develop and demonstrate
advanced collection system design
alternatives to reduce WWF overflows,
optimizing in-sewer storage and flow routing
systems in conjunction with storage basins
and WWTPs and evaluate whether new
sewerage systems should be separate or
combined.
Research Projects
4.1. Rouge River Restoration This project
described in detail above also addresses this
research need.
4.10. CSO Measures of Success Under this
project, the Association of Metropolitan
Sewerage Agencies (AMSA) is working with
CSO stakeholders (EPA, States,
communities with combined sewer systems,
and environmental groups) to identify
programmatic and environmental measures
that can be used by communities to
determine the effectiveness of their CSO
control programs in achieving the objectives
of the national CSO control policy. The
project encompasses four tasks, involving a
multi-disciplinary workgroup and
constituency focus groups to identify lists of
indicators that stakeholders can use to
effectively measure the success of CSO
control programs. Indicators include: (1)
programmatic, (2) instream, (3) end-of-pipe
controls, and (4) ecological and use
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attainability. This project is funded by OW
under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
4.11. Flow Balance Method This pilot-scale
demonstration is supported by a $1,000,000
EPA OW Marine Grant to the New York
City Department of Environmental
Protection (NYCDEP). NYCDEP's share
is estimated at $1,000,000. The flow
balancing method (FBM) is an in-receiving
water storage system comprised of pontoons
and submerged, flexible plastic sheeting that
captures WWF for pumpback to a treatment
facility. Storage is a necessary part of any
CSO control and treatment approach. FBM
construction materials cost less than
conventional basin storage. Most of the
expense in conventional storage is devoted
to concrete and steel for structural support
whereas the FBM relies on passive-water
pressure of the receiving water for structural
support. The NYC FBM project is the only
saltwater system in existence. Captured
CSO floats on top of the seawater due to the
difference in density. The first phase of this
project was supported by a $500,000 ORD
cooperative agreement that resulted in
various conference presentations and papers
and importantly, two peer-reviewed journal
articles. The current phase of the project is
an expansion of the original pilot-scale
project initiated in 1987 and will evaluate
CSO capture effectiveness for WWTP
pumpback. The earlier phase of the project
demonstrated that effective CSO control is
achieved by the FBM and its principals of
operation and sea-worthiness. The FBM
requires further evaluation to gain wider
acceptance. This project is funded by OW .
4.12. Storm Inlet Infiltration Device: Storm
inlet device may be divided into two broad
categories: devices that use screens to filter
stormwater prior to discharging into a sewer
(project 3.1 (6) Toxics'
Characterization'Treatment) and devices that
treat the stormwater prior to subsurface
infiltration. This project will evaluate
storm-inlet-infiltration devices designed to be
inserted into street stormwater inlets to
transform them into a treatment device prior
to subsurface infiltration discharge.
Infiltration is being pushed in Europe and
Japan to minimize the amount of polluted
runoff that must be dealt with, enhance
groundwater/drinking water supplies and
enhance base flow. These have been applied
in Maryland (where they failed because the
installations were not done properly) and in
central Florida (where everything works
because of the sugar-sand topsoil.
Replaceable filtering medium consists of
gravel, sand, and/or carbon to treat
stormwater prior to soil infiltration. The first
part of this study will be a desktop
evaluation using data available from previous
investigations from installed devices if
available. This data will be compared with
the sorption capacity of the filtering media.
Based on the results of the desktop
evaluation, an actual field evaluation of
various configurations will be performed.
Due consideration will be given to all
previous work in this area. This project will
be funded by NRMRL.
4.13. Stormceptor' s Storm Inlet Device
This project will be a field evaluation of a
full-scale, storm inlet device from the
Stormceptor Corporation. Performance of
this device will be compared to the
performance of an optimized catchbasin that
was evaluated by EPA in 1983. Another
possibility is a side-by-side field testing of the
Stormceptor device and other storm inlet
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devices, such as an optimized catchbasin
infiltration (see 4.12 above, SAGES), or
Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS).
This project will be funded by NRMRL in
support of funding by others.
4.14. CDS Stormwater Treatment This
project will be a full-scale evaluation of a
stormwater treatment device called
Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS)
system that was developed by Pollutec Ltd.,
an Australian firm. The device is a pollutant
trap system for removal and retaining of
particulate matter, litter and debris with a
hydraulic flow feature that protects the
separation screen from clogging. The CDS
consists of a circular solid-liquid separation
chamber where WWF is allowed to pass
through a circular screen/deflection plate,
which removes suspended solids. The
innovative deflection mechanism creates a
circular continuous flow pattern over the
face of the separation plate and, thus,
protects it from accumulating debris and
from clogging. The CDS system can be
incorporated into new pipe systems or
retrofitted into existing ones as well. There
is a potential to implement the CDS
evaluation at the New York Rockland
County Sewer District (RCSD) WWTP
under an extension of the existing
Cooperative Agreement between the OWM
and the RCSD. Currently, the RCSD is
conducting an evaluation of high-energy
mixing and UV disinfection technologies at
their WWTP with $500 K in grant funding
from the New York State Energy and
Development Authority (NYSERDA). The
addition of the CSD evaluation at the same
plant is being discussed. Another possibility
is a side-by-side field testing of the CDS
device and other storm inlet devices, such as
an optimized catchbasin, SAGES, or
Stormceptor device. This project is funded
by OW under its 104b3 Cooperative
Agreement Program.
4.15. Cross Connection Identification The
University of New Orleans Urban Waste
Management Research Center was awarded
an EPA grant to demonstrate the WWF
Program's interim "User's Guide for the
Investigation of Inappropriate Pollutant
Entries into Storm Drainage Systems"
(EPA/600/R-92/238). An actual municipal
application will be conducted in New
Orleans to assess the interim User's Guide's
usefulness for identifying unauthorized and
illicit residential sanitary sewer and industrial
wastewater connections to the storm-
drainage system. Where necessary,
modifications will be made and a final
updated user's guide will be published. A
training manual and seminars will also be
provided. This project is funded under the
Regional 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
4.16. Storage Facilities Design This project
will provide a design manual for
multipurpose storage-sedimentation facilities
integrating pollution, erosion, and flood
control. The manual will provide
engineering guidelines and information in
support of watershed management at the
local level, which is part of the 'Scientific
and Technical Advice' component of the
ORD Strategic Plan. The scope of this
project includes: (1) compiling existing data
on the effectiveness of CSO, stormwater,
and SSO storage, sedimentation, and
treatment methods; (2) verifying
recommended storage/treatment approaches
through computer modeling; (3) finalizing a
1981 EPA report currently in the draft final
form entitled Storage/Sedimentation
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Facilities for Control of Storm and
Combined Sewer Overflows Design Manual:
and (4) developing a second volume to this
document as a more detailed engineering
manual for storage/treatment optimization.
Low-flow augmentation with stored WWFs
will be examined. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
4.17. Real-Time Control bv Radar This
project will demonstrate application of a
radar-based rainfall monitoring system, by
the trade name of CALAMAR, to maximize
the in-line CSO storage capacity.
CALAMAR, developed by a French firm
RHEA, S. A., is a patented system of
hardware and software, which processes and
calibrates data from Doppler weather radar,
and produces accurate measurements of
rainfall intensity and accumulation at any
point within sixty miles of radar location .
When installed in the "real-time" mode,
CALAMAR will also provide short term
forecasts of rainfall intensity. In this project,
CALAMAR will be used in the real-time
mode to provide the sewerage operators
with advanced warning of stormwater
accumulation in different catchments at a
given time. This advanced information will
allow the operators to store and route the
flow in the most efficient manner.
Optimization of the CSO in-line storage
capacity is a cost-effective approach because
it minimizes the construction of new storage
facilities. It also prevents releases of
untreated CSO during a rain event. This
project is being considered for an FY97 start.
This project will be funded by NRMRL in
support of funding by others.
Research Need - Develop and demonstrate
high-rate and high-efficiency treatment
technologies suitable for retrofitting existing
WWTPs as well as for new installations.
Research Projects
4.1. Rouge River Restoration This project
described in detail above also addresses this
research need.
4.18. CSO Vortex Controls TheNYCDEP
is conducting a side-by-side, full-scale
demonstration of three different types of
vortex units primarily for floatables removal
and secondarily for other pollutant removals.
This facility will be the first in the world to
test three types of vortex devices side-by-
side. The facility will contain three 43-foot
diameter vortex units of varying depths. The
three units include the EPA swirl, the
German Fluidsep®, and the United Kingdom
Storm King®. These units have been tested
individually in other locations but have never
comprehensively been tested side-by-side.
The results obtained from this facility will
have potential application to over 400
outfalls in New York City.
The facility is being constructed
completely underground below Corona
Avenue adjacent to the Flushing Meadow-
Corona Park in Queens, NYC. The facility
will occupy a space of 80 ft by 394 ft and
will include a control room and several
sampling stations throughout the facility.
Channel configurations and sampling
equipment have been designed to provide
equal splitting of CSO quantity and quality
to each of the three units.
The sampling and analysis program
includes: floatables (sampled with small
aperture mechanical screens at strategic
points throughout the facility), suspended
solids, BOD, nutrients, and bacteria
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(sampled from multi-port continuous flow
stream sampling devices connected to
automated samplers). The WWF Program
will participate (under the authority of the
WERF as a member of the Wet Weather
Advisory Panel) in a joint-venture evaluation
of this project. The NYCDEP cost for this
project is estimated to be $40,000,000. This
is a WERF Category 1 project which will be
funded by NRMRL in support of funding by
others.
4.19. High-Rate Sedimentation This project
will demonstrate and evaluate high-rate
sedimentation processes, e.g., ActiFlow,
Microsep, Densadeg and lamellae plate
settling. The ActiFlow and Microsep
processes consist of chemical coagulation
with microcarrier media (e.g., microsand) as
a nucleus followed by flocculation and
settling. The innovative feature of this
process is that the coagulant nucleus,
microsand, is recycled for reuse in the
flocculation basin. The microsand settles out
with the sludge and is removed by a hydro-
cyclone for reuse. The microsand acts as a
catalyst improving flocculent settling. The
ActiFlow process also uses the lamellae
settling principles and the Dengadek process
recycles its chemical coagulants for reuse.
Studies of these processes in North America
and Europe have demonstrated its suitability
as an effective WWF control alternative. If
funds or leveraged funds were made
available to the WWF Program, a bench-,
pilot-, and full-scale WWF treatment plant
could be constructed and evaluated, and/or
the system could be retrofitted in an existing
WWTP. Benefits of these processes include:
high-rate settling, reduced cost for coagulant
aid or coagulant (reuse of microsand or
coagulant with minimal makeup); amenability
for retrofitting to improve primary treatment
(which is in accordance with "Combined
Sewer Overflow - Guidance for Nine
Minimum Controls" part of the EPA's
"National CSO Control Policy"); and low
cost high-rate treatment requiring less land.
As part of this project, we will evaluate
whether a national treatability study could be
carried out, including looking at pollutant
speciation, fractions associated with
settleable particulates, native soil type
effects, etc. This project will be funded by
NRMRL in support of funding by others.
4.20. Magnetic Separation This is a
proposed treatment technology for WWF
that has been used successfully for a number
of years for industrial wastewater treatment.
A high degree of treatment is possible with
this process. In its simplest form, the high-
gradient magnetic separation (HGMS)
consists of a canister packed with a fibrous
ferromagnetic material that is magnetized by
a strong external magnetic field (coils
surround the canister). The water to be
treated is passed through the canister and the
fibrous ferromagnetic matrix causes only a
small hydraulic resistance because it occupies
less than 5% of the canister volume.
Upstream of the canister the water is
prepared by binding finely divided magnetic
seed particles, e.g., magnetic iron oxide
(magnetite) to the nonmagnetic
contaminants. Binding the magnetic seed is
accomplished in two ways: adsorption of the
contaminant to the magnetic seed and
chemical coagulation (alum). The magnetic
particles are trapped on the edges of the
magnetized fibers in the canister as the
water passes through. When the matrix has
become loaded with magnetic particles, they
are easily washed off by turning off the
magnetic field and backflushing. Particles
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ranging in size from soluble through
settleable (>0.001um) may be removed with
this process. Eventually high levels of
treatment including toxicant removal will be
required for WWF in various locations and
HGMS is a process that can meet this
requirement. This project will be funded by
NRMRL in support of funding by others. A
municipal partner will be sought for project
leveraging.
4.21. WWF Design Protocols This project
will develop analytical protocols for
producing pertinent WWF pollution
abatement facility design data by: (1)
particle settling velocity and size distribution
along with available pollutant analyses, (2)
partitioning the floatable, particulate and
dissolved fractions of pollutants, (3) the
statistical analysis of historical rainfall and
WWTP data to alleviate dependancy on
expensive and time consuming WWF
monitoring, and (4) determining maximum
particle sizes and other particle
characteristics allowable for effective
disinfection treatment. The EPA "National
CSO Control Policy" requires primary
treatment followed by disinfection (when
necessary); however this requirement is
being made without characterizing the
particle size limitations for effective
disinfection. Without this knowledge
specific primary treatment/process and
design requirements cannot be made.
Furthermore, without adequate WWF
suspended and dissolved solids partitioning
and particle size/settling velocity distribution
analyses, primary treatment design cannot be
made properly. Initial phases of this project
can be developed through desktop analysis;
however, the experimental stages will require
the development of either an intramural
laboratory or performed under a cooperative
agreement. This project will be funded by
NRMRL and supported by a Cooperative
Research and Development Agreement
(CRADA) to John Meunier, Inc..
4.22. Retrofitting Control Facilities This
project will investigate the retrofitting of
existing sewerage systems to handle
additional WWF (SSO, stormwater and
CSO). Two basic techniques are: 1)
increasing the hydraulic loadings at the
control facilities, and 2) increasing the
amount of storage in the conveyance system.
Techniques to be investigated include: 1)
converting existing "dry-ponds" (ponds that
drain and go dry between storm events) to
"wet-ponds" for separate stormwater
systems to enable treatment through
sedimentation, and 2) converting or
retrofitting primary settling tanks to
dissolved air flotation and lamellae and/or
microsand-enhanced plate or tube settling.
Retrofitting processes will better enable
communities to meet EPA's CSO National
Control Policy. This project will be funded
by NRMRL.
4.23. CSO Concepts for Stormwater This
project will produce methodologies for
applying CSO control and treatment
methods to improve separate stormwater
systems. The methodologies will delve into
applicable storage, treatment and flow-
control techniques currently practiced in
CSO systems. As more separately-sewered
stormwater systems require increased
permitting, treatment and control methods
for discharges need to be assessed. CSO
systems have already been developed to
address the storage concepts and high-rate
intermittent treatment necessary to remove
pollutants from storm flow. The goal will
be to maximize the treatment capacity of the
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existing systems. This project will be funded
byNRMRL.
4.24. SSO Corrective Action This project
will develop methodologies for control
practices for SSO. Corrective actions by
storage, treatment and sewer rehabilitation
will be investigated. The work will also
include determining the risks and impacts to
groundwater from sewer exfiltration. In
particular, the project will investigate: (1)
impacts of peak flows and RII on SSO for
existing sewers, (2) effective monitoring and
control measures and their costs, and (3)
new design and construction techniques for
preventing SSOs in new sewers. The limits
to infiltration control would also be
investigated (based on associated
parameters, e.g., risks associated with
different soils, construction methods, and
water level). The study and manual follows
the research needs and recommendations
from the recent National Conference on
Sanitary Sewer Overflow held in Washington
DC in April 1995 and published in "Final
Report: Sanitary Sewer Overflow
Workshop" (August 1995). A paper
addressing SSO issues will be presented at
the "7th International Conference on Urban
Storm Drainage" in Hanover, Germany.
This project will be funded by NRMRL.
4.25. Impacts/Effectiveness Protocols This
effort will produce protocols that can be
used to characterize and evaluate the
effectiveness of WWF control and treatment
technologies in removing pollutants and the
resultant impact on water quality. States and
municipalities can use the protocol to assess
the performance of the implemented WWF
control measures and to determine whether
the performance meets the expectations of
the original design. This project is funded by
OW under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
4.26. Vortex/Disinfection Treatment This
project is an advanced research
demonstration project, funded via
Congressional budget line item, that will
demonstrate on a full scale, the applicability
of new, lower cost, more environmentally
acceptable processes for the treatment of
CSOs, using six, 32-foot diameter vortex
separators, two of which can operate as
primary or secondary units (secondary units
receive flow from the underflow of the
primary units thus concentrating the residuals
that are sent to the sewer system), high-rate
filtration, UV disinfection, appurtenant flow
metering, flow control, and three with air
dissolving tubes and float removal
mechanisms. The project is being conducted
at two sites in Columbus, Georgia. Specific
goals of this project include: providing
comparative process results for various
treatment technologies that can be used by
other CSO cities in determining what level of
control might be necessary for meeting their
site-specific water quality requirements;
providing design criteria and capital and
O&M costs for use by other CSO cities in
determining cost-effectiveness answers to
their own site-specific constraints;
determining split-flow capabilities of process
combinations for matching treatment level
with the variable nature of wet-weather
hydraulics and pollution, thereby reducing
control costs of meeting water quality
objectives; determining appropriate hydraulic
controls and operations necessary for remote
technology siting, thus reducing overall CSO
control costs and more effectively solving
the pollution problem at its source;
determining cost-effective methods for
remotely concentrating and batch removal of
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residuals to minimize hydraulic load impacts
on the wastewater treatment plant, thereby
providing more capacity for handling WWFs,
such as infiltration/inflow, and preventing
SSOs; determining annual statistical
hydraulic and pollutant loading and possible
relationships with individual time related
loadings and integration with process
performance that can be applied to comply
with the 1994 EPA CSO Control Policy.
Discrete and composite sampling will
be performed at the influent, effluent and
sidestreams for each unit process. Discrete
sampling will be performed at small enough
intervals to establish flush conditions and
process performance during those
conditions. Analyses will be conducted for
conventional and specific priority pollutants,
bacteria, oil and grease, particle
characteristics and toxicity. This is a
Congressionally mandated project.
4.27. Crossflow Plate Settlers One of the
nine minimum controls of the EPA's
National CSO Control Policy is to force
more CSO through the primary settling tanks
for treatment prior to release in the receiving
water. Efficiency of primary treatment and
overflowrates can be increased by retrofitting
with high-rate treatment methods. This
project will demonstrate CSO treatment
using an existing WWTP primary settling
tanks retrofitted with crossflow plate settlers.
The successful application of plate settling
technology will provide a way to decrease
cost of CSO control and will decrease the
need for newly constructed storage and
treatment facilities and additional land
requirements. This project will be funded
under EPA's Environmental Technology
Initiative/Environmental Technology
Verification (ETI/ETV) program.
4.28. High-Rate Disinfection This project
will demonstrate and compare high-rate
disinfection technologies applied to CSO
after primary clarification, part of the EPA's
National CSO Control Policy. Technologies
to be potentially demonstrated include: static
and mechanical/dynamic mixing; sequential
addition of sodium hypochlorite and chlorine
dioxide; ozonation; chlorine dioxide alone;
and UV light irradiation. These high-rate
processes will be compared to conventional
sodium hypochlorite disinfection. The
characteristics of intense storm-generated
flows necessitate the adoption of cost-
effective and high-rate disinfection facilities
adaptable to intermittent use and varying
dosage requirements. This project may
include an evaluation of the potential for
accidents or mishaps, such as from the
explosive nature of ozone or the potential for
exposure to the general public with the use
of chlorine compounds. This project will be
funded by NRMRL in support of funding by
others.
4.29. Demonstration of Biofilters This
project will demonstrate biofilters as a multi-
purpose treatment method. The use of
biofilters will enable a treatment plant to
handle two to three times DWF as opposed
to the conventional design of one and a half
times DWF. Biofilters achieve better
removals than that required by the EPA's
National CSO Control Policy. The filters
will also enable the treatment plants to
remove additional BOD and ammonia which
will result in higher dissolved oxygen levels
in the receiving-water bodies. This project
will be funded by NRMRL in support of
funding by others.
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4.30. High-Rate Ozonation Conventional
disinfection technologies cannot be readily
applied to CSOs. The difficulty stems from
the fact that CSOs occur randomly, the
flowrates depend on the intensity and
duration of the storm, the water quality
characteristics of each CSO event vary and
are highly dependent on local and seasonal
conditions, and the flow is of intermittent
duration. Consequently, the effective
disinfection process will have to provide the
desired microbial deactivation very rapidly
under the specific CSO conditions and carry
very small amounts of or no residual into the
receiving-water stream or water body.
Among the available proven disinfection
technologies, ozonation is known to have the
highest oxidizing power, and due to its high
reactivity with water, does not carry residual.
It is therefore proposed that ozonation be
evaluated as an alternative disinfection
process for CSO.
A one million gallon/day pilot project
is proposed that will provide for the design,
construction, operation, and maintenance of
a full-scale ozone CSO disinfection system in
Fresh Creek with the goal of reducing
microbial pollution to Jamaica Bay, New
York. This project will be funded by
NRMRL in support of funding by others.
4.31. Triple Purpose Storage This project
will demonstrate the successful CSO storage
concept as applied to separate storm
drainage, sanitary sewer, and combined
sewer system discharges. The conventional
CSO storage concept uses the existing
WWTP for treatment. A site will be sought
that can demonstrate multipurpose storage
for an urban system that contains: (1)
stormwater and inappropriate non-
stormwater discharges from storm-drainage,
(2) CSO, and (3) DWF from combined or
sanitary sewers. This storage system should
provide a higher degree of treatment than
current stormwater pollution control which
usually employs retention/detention without
downstream treatment and soil infiltration
practices that may lead to soil and
groundwater contamination. Importantly, it
uses one storage facility for multipurpose
controls and recognizes that increasing in-
stream flows during critical periods is an
important contemporary management tool.
Storage is considered a necessary control
alternative because storm flow is intermittent
and highly variable in pollutant concentration
and flowrate. Auxiliary storage functions
may include sedimentation treatment, flood
protection, flow attenuation, DWF capture
and attenuation, sewer relief, and low-flow
augmentation. The WWF Program would
identify a municipal partner(s) with adequate
existing facilities willing to adopt this storage
strategy. This project will be funded by
NRMRL in support of funding by others.
Research Need - Demonstrate and evaluate
the use of natural and created wetlands for
management of WWFs in urban areas,
including collection of design and
operational data for optimal performance.
Research Projects
4.1. Rouge River Restoration This project
described in detail above also addresses this
research need.
4.32. Harlem River Wetlands
Demonstration of technologies for CSO
treatment involving: flow balance method in-
receiving water storage, inline floatables
removal, and constructed wetlands for CSO
treatment. This multifaceted project includes
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restoration of the Spuyten Duyvil area of the
Harlem River, such as riverfront upgrade and
many other public recreation projects. The
WWF Program will collaborate with New
York State and NYC to conduct this project.
This project will be funded through a Federal
Highway Administration grant and NRMRL.
4.33. Storage/Wetlands Treatment In
September 1995, the WWF Program in
conjunction with Onondaga County
Department of Public Works, N.Y., received
a $100,000 Environmental Technology
Initiative (ETI) award for a demonstration
project in the Harbor Brook watershed. The
Onondaga County share will be $5,300,000.
The 8,600 acre watershed which drains into
Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, N.Y., contains
1,300 acres of combined and 3,060 acres of
separate storm-sewer drainage area,
respectively. This project will develop and
evaluate an innovative system for a
watershed approach to the control of WWF
by combining an in-brook TrashTrap™
netting system, an in-lake EquiFlow™ (or
Flow-Balance Method [FBM]) storage
system, and an existing/constructed wetlands
treatment. The TrashTrap™ will remove the
larger materials and the floatables in Harbor
Brook while the captured WWF will be
balanced (equalized) by FBM storage, and
then either pumped to the WWTP or
directed through the wetlands for treatment.
This project will also assess the effectiveness
of constructed wetlands at removing
pollutants from WWF in northern climates.
Results of this watershed approach will be
incorporated into the Watershed
Management project. This project is funded
under EPA's ETI program in support of
funding by others.
4.34. Constructed Vegetative Treatment
Cells This project supports the development
and implementation of Constructed
Vegetative Treatment Cells (CVTC) for
CSO remediation. CVTCs require little
construction and operating equipment
resulting in low capital costs and O&M
requirements. In the laboratory, CVTCs
have addressed multiple-pollutant problems.
CVTCs function as a physical/biological
treatment system. CVTCs remove suspended
solids and their associated pollutants by
settling and biological contaminants through
uptake of nutrients by the plants or as a fixed
media for attached microorganisms while
also behaving as biological aerators. This
demonstration will generate monitoring,
process control, and O&M data necessary to
facilitate widespread implementation of
CVTC technology for CSO remediation.
This project is funded by the ETI/ETV
program in support of funding by others.
4.35. ETV Pilot for WWF Control Systems
In August 1996, resources were provided to
the UWMB for an Environmental
Technology Verification (ETV) pilot
program to verify commercial WWF control
systems. The EPA's ETV program, initiated
in October 1995, is to provide credible
environmental technology performance data
and cost. Under an ETV pilot program,
technologies are evaluated by a disinterested
third party under a cooperative agreement
with EPA and with some EPA funding.
Technology developers are solicited by the
evaluating party to provide: (1) their
treatment units, (2) operation of systems in
the field, and (3) significant financial
contribution to the cost of evaluation,
including sampling and analytical costs. The
technology performance results are
distributed widely through an Evaluation
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Report (hard copy) and a Verification Sheet
done by EPA on the Internet. Under the
WWF Pilot, the recipient of ETV award, a
testing organization, would solicit all
interested vendors for evaluations to verify
effectiveness of their systems and determine
their costs. This would pertain to the WWF
Inlet Treatment Devices and to the WWF
High-Rate Treatment Technologies as well.
WWF Inlet Treatment Devices.
These devices are designed to be placed in an
inlet, collect or remove solids, and prevent
resuspension of solids during subsequent
storms thereby preventing their entry into the
treatment plant or the receiving stream. The
verification program would answer several
key questions that affect the efficacy of these
units, such as possible removal efficiencies,
maintenance (especially needed frequency of
cleaning), and other operational
characteristics.
Advanced High-Rate WWF
Treatment Technologies. Four general
groups of high-rate treatment technologies
are being evaluated: sedimentation, micro-
and fine-mesh screening, biological, and
disinfection processes. All high-rate
technologies are compact and capable of
high throughput. Since storm flows are
significantly greater than dry weather flows,
use of high-rate processes requiring less
tankage and space is significantly more cost-
effective than use of conventional processes.
The major steps in developing this
ETV Pilot are: (1) to establish a stakeholder
group for the life of the WWF pilot, (2)
using the competitive procedure, establish a
cooperative agreement (CA) partner who
would be the disinterested third party for
conducting verification testing, (3) after the
CA award, EPA will cooperate closely with
the CA partner to implement the multi-year
verification program. This project is funded
by NRMRL with ETV funds.
4.36 Sewer and Tank Sediment Flushing
The objective of this project is to develop
and test innovative, cost-effective methods
for flushing sewer sediment and WWF
storage tank bottom sludge to prevent
pollutants from directly discharging to
receiving waters during storm-flow
conditions and alleviate expensive and
significant maintenance problems,
respectively. For effective maintenance of
storage tanks, it is necessary to remove
settled solids and debris soon after each
storm event. Two methods (i.e., tipping
flushers and flushing gates) for cleaning
accumulated sludge and debris in storage
tanks have been widely used in Germany and
Switzerland. However, both technologies
require moving parts and control instrument
systems to operate for creating high
velocity/energy flushing waves to sweep the
settled sludge to a channel for further
treatment and disposal. This project will
investigate the feasibility of hydraulic-
balanced methods for creating resuspension
energy for sewerline and tank cleaning and
demonstrate the new innovate methods at
field WWTP sites. This will be an NRMRL
funded project.
Research Area 5 - Infrastructure
Improvement
Research Question - What are the best
approaches to rehabilitate existing and
construct new sewer systems in urban
settings?
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Research Need - Develop and demonstrate
new technologies that can be used to
construct, maintain, and repair new and
existing sewer infrastructure at an acceptable
cost.
Research Projects
5.1 Infrastructure Rehabilitation This
project will develop a summary of national
data on I/I reduction resulting from multiple
rehabilitation approaches. Data will be
compiled for three categories: mains only,
mains and lower laterals, or comprehensive
rehabilitation (mains, lower laterals, and
private sector service lines). Investigations
to quantify types of I/I reduction by peak
flow or flow volumes, and efforts to relate
I/I to rain-induced infiltration (RII) and
groundwater infiltration will be conducted.
Other variables will be defined including size
and type of repair performed. Cost data will
be developed for rehabilitation, including
cost per foot of pipe (either based on system-
wide length of pipe or based on feet of pipe
rehabilitated) or cost per gallon of I/I
removed. Cost data will be collected on
sewer system replacement activities. Areas
to be examined include annual investment in
rehabilitation (percent of system value) and
expected design life of the sewer system.
The cost data will be used to examine
whether annual investment matches expected
design life. The project will also develop
generalized guidance, if possible, on the
minimum cost of system rehabilitation for I/I
reduction, or the minimum cost per foot of
pipe in the system. Future activities in this
project will encompass the development of
technical guidance on engineering and
construction practices for new facilities in an
effort to minimize I/I. The guidance will
cover pipe and manhole materials, pipe joint
design including new flexible water-tight
pipe connections for house service laterals,
designing laterals to be accessible to TV
inspection, and installation techniques.
Furthermore, leaks and structural integrity
technologies in municipal potable water
distribution systems and possibly heat and
gas distribution systems will be developed
and demonstrated. Since 30% of the cost of
water, on a national basis, is due to leaks
from the distribution system, such research
will fulfill a national need and result in a
significant cost savings on a national basis.
This project will be funded by OW under its
104b3 Cooperative Agreement Program and
NRMRL.
5.2 Sewer Maintenance Effectiveness The
objective of this project is to develop a
methodology for use by permittees and
permitting agencies to evaluate the adequacy
of a sanitary sewer collection system O&M
program. The methodology will contain
information on how to: (1) establish an
effective collection system O&M program to
maintain functional and structural integrity,
(2) evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness
of an existing collection system O&M
program, and (3) prevent new connections
and reconnections of inflow sources.
Supporting documentation for the guidance
will be obtained via literature search,
telephone discussions, and at least six
collection system data/information gathering
visits. This project is funded by OW under
its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement Program.
5.3 Sewer Maintenance Optimization The
objective of this project is to develop an
optimized approach for maintenance of
collection systems. This effort will result in a
decision-making model which can be used by
cities and agencies in evaluating the cost of
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maintenance (as measured by maintenance
frequency) and system performance.
Specific objectives are to: (1) evaluate the
effectiveness of maintenance and
rehabilitation programs by reviewing the
inspection activities and their frequency; (2)
review how maintenance and rehabilitation
dollars are spent; and (3) provide an
overview of typical values for maintenance
frequencies and system reinvestment expense
amounts to serve as benchmarks for local
governments and agencies in evaluating their
own programs. This project is funded by
OW under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program.
5.4 Sanitary Sewer System Design Practices
This project would review the
appropriateness of current sanitary sewer
system design practices. The following are
some of the questions that could be
answered: Are systems built to current
design standards (e.g., systems in 5-year old
development areas) experiencing excessive
I/I? At what age do separate systems begin
to experience excessive I/I? Should separate
sewer systems construction design materials
be comparable to those used in potable water
design (systems which are not known to
experience chronic widespread failure)? This
project will be funded by NRMRL.
5.5 House Service Laterals Approximately
70 to 80% of I/I comes from faulty house
service laterals, especially from the coupling
between the house service and street laterals
due to differential settling of these laterals.
This project will develop and evaluate new
and improved coupling techniques and house
service laterals in order to significantly
alleviate I/I. This project will be funded by
OW under its 104b3 Cooperative Agreement
Program and NRMRL.
5.6 Reduced Impervious Cover Reductions
in urban and suburban impervious cover,
e.g., roadways and parking lots has been
shown to significantly reduce stormwater
runoff quality and hydraulic impacts to
surface waters. This project will develop
methods and evaluate the benefits of
reducing impervious area cover by such
methods as: narrower roadways, porous
pavements, zoning practices, and greenway
buffers. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
5.7 Swales Instead of Curbs Street curbs
and gutters intensify the quantity of polluted
stormwater runoff entering receiving water
bodies. This project will evaluate the
benefits (and disadvantages) of using side
grass swales and other methods to take the
place of curbs and gutters. This project will
be funded by NRMRL.
6. Research Assistance
6.1 WWF Research Plan. TheUWMB's
WWF Program has developed a five-year
research plan to conduct intramural and
extramural research and to detail
collaborative efforts with related EPA and
other non-EPA programs. A presentation of
the plan will be given at the 24th Annual
ASCE Conference, Water Resources
Planning and Management Division, April 7-
10, 1997, Houston, Texas and published in
the proceedings. In addition a peer-reviewed
journal article of the plan will be
submitted for potential publication. This
plan will be updated annually, in
coordination with OW. This project will be
funded by NRMRL.
6.2 Qn-site Laboratory. The WWF
Research Program will plan, design, install
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and operate an intramural laboratory. This
laboratory will conduct research and analyses
for the: (1) development of bench-scale
WWF treatability procedures to significantly
improve selection and design of full-scale
WWF control systems, (2) development of
streamlined watershed monitoring practices,
including quick tests for determining limiting
nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon)
causing eutrophication, especially in areas
impacted by septic systems, (3)
characterization of source contributions of
WWF toxic substances as part of a pollution
prevention strategy, and (4) characterization
of the required particle size for adequate
WWF disinfection. Other research efforts
will be conducted in future years. This
project will be funded by NRMRL.
6.3 WWF Training Pertinent WWF
Research Program, OWM Program, and
water resources and treatment references will
be made available and disseminated to bring
intramural WWF staff rapidly up the learning
curve. Reading material will be reinforced
by a training films and animated computer
presentations. Sessions would be scheduled
for intramural WWF Program discussions
and seminars on pertinent topics. Dr. Robert
Pitt of the University of Alabama, an expert
in stormwater research, conducted a three-
day seminar in November 1995. Other
WWF experts including Frank Rogella, Steve
Hides, Dave Averill, and Dr. William Pisano
have also given seminars. Depending on the
level of funds for training, WWF Program
staff members would also be able to attend
extramural WWF conferences, seminars, and
courses to enhance their knowledge in the
WWF area. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
6.4 Support to the WERF As a member of
the Water Environment Research
Foundation's (WERF's) Wet Weather
Research Advisory Panel, the WWF Program
represented by Richard Field provides
detailed technical assistance for the
development and management of WWF
projects valued at millions of dollars. Much
of the WERF-WWF program is supported by
EPA 104(b)(3) cooperative agreements.
This project is funded by NRMRL.
6.5 WERF Research Needs The objectives
of this project are to conduct a critical
review of the status of existing information
and valid scientific data and to identify areas
of future research relative to wet weather
runoff associated with urban watersheds. It
is expected the assessment will concentrate
on reviewing approaches to issues such as
accumulation and transport of pollutants,
ecosystem level effects of different BMPs
and monitoring methods. The final report
will be a comprehensive document which
critically evaluates existing information
pertaining to wet weather events and
identifies areas of future research. This
project will be funded by OW under its
104b3 Cooperative Agreement Program.
6.6 Annual Literature Review The WWF
Research Program will produce the 1996
through 2000 WWF annual literature reviews
for Water Environment Research. The
required literature searches will supplement
research for WWF Research Program
projects and training to the WWF staff while
producing a prestigious deliverable. This
project will be funded by NRMRL.
6,7 Stormwater Management Conference
The Conference will be an Engineering
Foundation/Urban Water Resources
Research Council Conference entitled,
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"Integrating Stormwater Quality & Quantity
Management Into Sustainable Urban Water
Resources Programs -- State-of-the-Art &
Future Directions" will be held in Malmo,
Sweden. "How do we pull it all together?",
" Where do we go from here?", and "How
do we make it work?", are the conference
questions that support its theme of
integration and implementation. The
conference will be funded by OW under its
104b3 Cooperative Agreement Program in
support of funding by others.
6.8 Vortex Journal Article Richard Field of
the WWF Program has been invited by the
Wastewater Technology Centre under
Environment Canada (EPA's Canadian
counterpart) to be the principal author of a
vortex separation concept paper. The paper
was peer reviewed and will be published by
the Water Quality Research Journal of
Canada in January 1997. This project is
funded by NRMRL.
6.9 Support to Environment Canada
Environment Canada is demonstrating a
variety of pilot-scale, high-rate CSO
treatment processes, e.g., a vortex separator,
filtration, microscreens, and disinfection by
UV. Richard Field of the WWF Program is
participating as an expert advisor and is
obtaining valuable evaluation data. A joint
Environment Canada-NRMRL report will be
published. Environment Canada's cost for
this project is estimated to be $1,500,000.
This project is funded by NRMRL in support
of principal funding by Environment Canada.
6.10 CSO Optimization Paper CSO must be
controlled by a storage-treatment system
because storm flow in the combined
sewerage system is intermittent and highly
variable in both pollutant concentration and
flowrate. A treatment facility operating
without the benefit of upstream storage
would need to be very large and costly in
order to handle the relatively high flowrate
of a CSO. Similarly, if storage is used
without treatment, the storage volume
required would be very large and also
expensive. This paper describes a strategy to
optimize CSO control system. This
optimized system maximizes the use of the
existing system before new construction and
sizes the storage volume in concert with the
WWTP treatment rate to obtain the lowest
cost storage and treatment system. The
paper was peer reviewed by the Journal of
the Environmental Engineering Division,
ASCE and will be published in March 1997.
This project is funded by NRMRL.
6.11 Expanded Literature Review Although
this research plan has many references, given
that it will be widely read, there are some
important new references which should be
included. For example, many EPA staff
members are familiar with he fact that
ASCE's Urban Water Resource Research
Council, in conjunction with the Engineering
Foundation and (frequently) the EPA, has
held conferences on various facets of wet
weather management every two to three
years from the mid-1960s to the present.
The last such conference was held in
Snowbird, Utah in August 1996. Prior to
the 1996 conference, an important
conference was held in Crested Butte,
Colorado in 1994 on stormwater monitoring
needs. An excellent feature of the
proceedings from these conferences is that
they identify research needs in the wet
weather arena. Interestingly, many of the
research needs identified in the 1960s and
1970s continue to apply today. It would also
be helpful if the next version of the Wet
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Weather Research Needs could reference
books like the 1993 ASCE/WEF Manual of
Practice for the Design and Construction of
Urban Stormwater Management Systems
and the soon to be published WEF/ASCE
Manual of Practice on Urban Stormwater
Quality Management. References of this
kind have been written and reviewed by a
wide variety of wet weather practitioners.
The references carefully describe not only
what we know but also what we do not
know. Consequently, it would be feasible to
go through the books, identify the areas
where design information is lacking, and add
them to the list of research needs suggested
by the EPA. This project will be funded by
NRMRL.
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REFERENCES
Agnew, R. W., C. A. Hansen, M. J. Clark,
O. F. Nelson and W. H. Richardson.
Biological Treatment of Combined Sewer
Overflow at Kenosha, Wisconsin, EP A-
670/2-75-019 (NTIS PB 242 126).
Cincinnati, OH: EPA, 1975.
Aronson, G.L., D.S. Watson and W.C.
Pisano. Evaluation qfCatchbasin
Performance for Urban Stormwater
Pollution Control, EPA-600/2-83-043
(NTIS PB 83-217 745). Cincinnati, OH:
EPA, 1983.
American Public Works Association.
Combined Sewer Regulator Overflow
Facilities, 11022DMUO7/70 (NTIS PB 215
902). Federal Water Quality Administration,
Department of the Interior and Twenty-Five
Local Governmental Jurisdictions: 1970a.
American Public Works Association.
Combined Sewer Regulation and
Management: A Manual of Practice,
11022DMUO8/70 (NTIS PB 195 676).
Federal Water Quality Administration,
Department of the Interior and Twenty-Five
Local Governmental Jurisdictions: 1970b.
American Public Works Association
Nationwide Costs to Implement BMPs,
1992.
Bureau of the Census. U.S. Department of
Commerce, 1990 Census of Population and
Housing.
Burton, A. and R. Pitt. Manual for
Evaluating Stormwater Runoff Effects in
Receiving Waters. CRC Lewis Publishers,
Anne Arbor, MI, Publication Pending, 1996.
Byran, E.H. "Quality of Stormwater
Drainage from Urban Land." Presented at
the 7th Amer. Water Resources Conf.,
Washington, DC, October 8, 1971.
Chan, E., T.A. Bursztynsky, N. Hantzsche
and Y. J. Litwin. The Use of Wetlands for
Water Pollution Control" EPA- 600/2-82-
086 (NTIS PB 83-107 466). Cincinnati, OH:
EPA, 1982.
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-------
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-------
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-------
76
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-------
77
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-------
Appendix A
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