Accretion of Pollutants in Snow Exposed to Urban Traffic and Winter Storm Maintenance Activities. I

Abstract

Urban snow is impacted by traffic activities and winter maintenance practices that result in significant accretion of dissolved, colloidal, and suspended solids in a complex heterogeneous snow matrix that includes heavy metals, inorganic, and organic compounds. Extended residence times of snow as a roadway snowbank exposed to these pollutant-generating activities lead to significant pollutant accretion and partitioning in the snow matrix. This study analyzed four highway sites in urban Cincinnati with respect to specific water quality indices for the residence time of roadway snow. Chloride levels in roadway snow illustrate a direct correlation to application of de-icing salts. While accretion of total dissolved solids (TDS) was initially rapid with a decrease late in the event, total suspended solids (TSS) accretion demonstrated a more gradually increasing trend for the duration of roadway snow, approaching 105 mg/L. Temporal trends towards increasing total chemical oxygen demand (CODt) exerted by roadway snow are similar to TSS, with CODt values approaching 105 mg/L. Applications of 2.2×105 kg of de-icing salt containing cyanide as an anticaking agent, along a 27-km section of interstate, resulted in approximately 6 kg of cyanide discharged along this major north-south interstate in the study area. Results indicate that traffic activities and winter storm management practices can have a significant impact on pollutant accretion in urban snow.