Abstract
Field monitoring of a stormwater treatment train has been underway between November 2013 and May 2015 at a townhouse development located at Ormiston, southeast Queensland. The research was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of a 200 micron mesh pit basket in a 900 square format and an 850 mm high media filtration cartridge system for removing total suspended solids and nutrients from stormwater runoff. The monitoring protocol was developed with Queensland University of Technology (QUT), reflecting the Auckland Regional Council Proprietary Device Evaluation Protocol (PDEP) and United States Urban Stormwater BMP Performance Monitoring Manual with some minor improvements reflecting local conditions. During the 18 month period, more than 30 rain events have occurred, of which nine comply with the protocol. The Efficiency Ratio (ER) observed for the treatment devices are 32% total suspended solids (TSS), 37% for total phosphorus (TP) and 38% total nitrogen (TN) for the pit basket, and an Efficiency Ratio of 87% TSS, 55% TP and 42% TN for the cartridge filter. The performance results on nine events have been observed to be significantly different statistically (p < 0.05) for the filters but not the pit baskets. The research has also identified the significant influence of analytical variability on performance results, specifically when influent concentrations are near the limits of detection.
Highlights
The release of the Queensland State Planning Policy (SPP) requires local planning schemes to integrate the state’s interest in water quality by applying stormwater management objectives relevant to the climatic region, or demonstrating current best practice environmental management for urban developments
Where the results have been less than the limits of detection (LOD), they have been shown as 50% of the Limit of Detection (LOD)
The preliminary results indicate that the relatively simple 200 micron filter bag removes about 32% of the suspended solids and 37% and 38% of the total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations respectively based on the Efficiency Ratio (ER) metric
Summary
The release of the Queensland State Planning Policy (SPP) requires local planning schemes to integrate the state’s interest in water quality by applying stormwater management objectives relevant to the climatic region, or demonstrating current best practice environmental management for urban developments. Several documents have been released in Australia over the past decade providing guidance on the design, modelling, construction, implementation and maintenance of stormwater quality management measures to achieve these objectives [2,3,4]. These guidelines have typically focussed on the constructed “natural” treatment measures including swales, biofiltration and wetlands. This paper presents a protocol developed for local Australian conditions by local universities in conjunction with SPEL Environmental (SPEL), a stormwater technology supplier, and applies it to testing an innovative stormwater treatment train in southeast Queensland, with discussion of the performance results observed
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