Evaluation of Management Alternatives for Truck Wash Water Generated During Winter Maintenance Activities

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to identify alternative strategies for managing wash water generated during routine washing of salt trucks at Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) maintenance facilities lacking access to sanitary sewer and to assess their costs. Eighteen potential management strategies were identified and evaluated. Six of these strategies were included in a detailed cost analysis, which indicated that site-specific conditions directly affect the cost of alternative management strategies and that tying a facility into the sanitary sewer is not always the most cost-effective strategy. For a county maintenance facility with 12 trucks and 30 winter events, tying into the sanitary sewer was the most cost-effective strategy when the capital cost was less than US$173,640; however, when the capital cost was greater than US$285,333, four of the five alternative strategies identified were more cost-effective than tying into the sanitary sewer.