Characteristics of Non-Point Pollution from Road Surface Runoff

Abstract

Pollutants from urban pavement consists various kinds of substances which are originated from dry deposition, a grind out tire, corrosive action of rain to pavement and facilities and raw materials of the road etc.. These are major pollutants of urban NPS (Non-point source) during rainfall period. However there is not enough information to control such pollutants for appropriate management of natural water quality. In this study of transportation areas, three monitoring stations were set up at trunk road, urban highway and national road in Gyeongnam province. Runoff flow rate was measured at every 15minutes by automatic flow meters installed at the end of storm sewer pipe within the road catchment area for water quality analysis. Data was collected every 15 minutes for initial two hours of rainfall. Additional samples were collected 1-4 hours interval till the end of rainfall. The monitoring parameters were CODMn, SS, T-N & T-P and heavy metals. The average EMCs of TSS and CODMn were 62.0 mg/L and 24.2 mg/L on the city trunk road, which were higher than those of urban highway and national road, indicating higher pollutant loads due to activities in the city downtown area beside the vehicle. On the other hand, the average EMC of T-N and T-P were in the range of 2.67-3.23 mg/L and 0.19-3.21 mg/L for all the sampling sites. Heavy metals from the roads were mainly Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn, showing variable EMCs by the type of road. From the TSS wash-off analysis in terms of FF(first flush) index, first flush phenomenon was clearly observed in the trunk road(FF : 0.89-1.43). However, such mass delivery behavior was not apparently shown in urban highway(FF : 0.90-1.11) and national road(FF : 0.81-1.41).