Handling of Urban Snow with Regard to Snow Quality

Abstract

Snow-handling strategies employed in Swedish municipalities today are not very different from those used 10years ago. However, to reduce the environmental negative effects of snow from urban areas, such as contamination of ground water, surface water and soil, in 1990 the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) presented a snow-separation strategy. The separation strategy implies that the snow is separated into “heavily polluted” and “less polluted” snow. In this study, snow from different urban areas, i.e. housing areas and central areas with different traffic loads, was compared. The results show the importance of both the location and time, that is, what happens to the snow while it stays at the ground. A comparison was made with quality criteria for stormwater and for different types of recipients to establish the quality criteria required for snow to be handled in local snow deposits. To decrease, for example, municipalities’ costs for analyzing pollutants in snow, proposals for establishing standard metal concentrations in snow and for recommending snow-handling strategies were discussed.