Abstract
Rainfall and associated urban runoff have been linked to an increased deterioration of environmental waters, carrying several pollutants including pathogenic microorganisms. Such happens because fecal matter is washed into storm drainage pipes that are afterward released into environmental waters. Stormwater has not been extensively characterized as it is, because most studies are performed either on drainage pipes that are often impacted by sewage leakage or directly in environmental waters following a rain event. In this study, stormwater collected directly from the streets, was monitored for the presence of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and three potential important sources of fecal contamination in urban environments (human, cats, and dogs) in three distinct basins in Lisbon, Portugal. Stormwater was collected in sterilized plastic boxes inserted in the storm drains, therefore collecting only runoff. High concentration of fecal contamination was detected with a high percentage of the samples displayed at least one source of contamination. A strong relationship was found between the number of detected sources and the precipitation levels. Although no statistical correlation was found between the locations and the presence of FIB or source markers, the results show a trend in geographical information on the type of urban use in each basin. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study analyzing the runoff collected directly from the streets. This study suggests that, in urban areas, stormwater runoff is highly impacted by fecal matter, not only from domestic animals but also from human origin, before any cross-contamination in the drainage system and may, by itself, pose a high risk to human health and the environment, particularly if water reuse of this water without further disinfection treatment is the final goal.
Highlights
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, most countries developed an increasing concern over urban pollution, trying to limit the impacts on natural environments of both solid waste and wastewater.The preservation of receiving waters depends strongly on the quality of wastewater and stormwater discharges
These results are in accordance with previous studies (Waso et al, 2018a; Hajj-Mohamad et al, 2019) that tested the use of different markers, including human mitochondrial DNA marker, to determine correlation between MST markers, fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) and land use and have determined that no correlation existed between the markers and Escherichia coli (EC) in residential areas
The majority of the studies targeting stormwater quality have been conducted either in the drainage pipes, many times cross-contaminated with sewage, or in environmental waters following a rain event
Summary
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, most countries developed an increasing concern over urban pollution, trying to limit the impacts on natural environments of both solid waste and wastewater. The preservation of receiving waters depends strongly on the quality of wastewater and stormwater discharges. The latter is a direct result of precipitation over an urban basin, dragging all pollutants accumulated during dry weather: rooftop and traffic pollutants, single discharges of Characterization of Stormwater Runoff waste and pollutants from several other sources. Wastewater discharges are, for instance, being monitored and controlled in the European Union countries and in the United States, under international legislation – European Union Directive 2006/7/EC (CEC Council Directive, 2006) and U.S Clean Water Act 1972 (USEPA, 1972) – which tries to limit the impact on natural environments by these waters. A large number of studies have shown the presence of pathogenic organisms in stormwater (Ahmed et al, 2010, 2011, 2014; Jongman and Korsten, 2016; Waso et al, 2016; Bae et al, 2019)
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