Abstract
Urban stormwater runoff is contaminated by nutrients that wash off of roadways, parking lots and lawns during storms. In-ground permeable filter systems that consist of carefully selected filter material have the potential to remove these nutrients from the run-off. In this paper, four filter materials, calcite, zeolite, sand and iron filings, were investigated using laboratory batch tests to evaluate their efficiency in the removal of nitrate and phosphate from the simulated stormwater at different initial concentrations under the same 24-h exposure time period. The range of removal for nitrate was from 39 % to 65 % for calcite, from 42 % to 77 % for zeolite, from 40 % to 70 % for sand, and from 74 % to 100 % for iron filings. The removal of phosphate ranged from 35 % to 41 % for calcite, 59 % to 100 % for zeolite, 49 % to 100 % for sand, and 73 % to 100 % for iron filings. The removal of nitrate is mainly attributed to electrostatic adsorption, except when iron filings were used as a filter material where additional processes such as electrochemical reduction, ligand complexation and precipitation may have contributed to the higher nitrate removal. Phosphate removal is also attributed to electrostatic adsorption in all filter materials; however, at higher phosphate concentrations, the precipitation process may be the dominant process for all of the filter materials except calcite. The Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms fitted the observed nonlinear adsorption results, but the mechanism of removal of phosphate changed from adsorption to precipitation at concentrations higher than 1 mg/l in zeolite, sand, and iron filings; therefore, the adsorption models are valid below this concentration limit. A typical application of these batch adsorption test results is presented in the design of a field in-ground permeable filter system.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
APHA (American Public Health Association, AWWA (American Water Works Association), & WEF (Water Environment Federation). (2006). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater (22nd ed.). Washington D.C: American Public Health Association.
ASTM. (2012). Annual book of ASTM standards. West Conshohocken, PA: American Society for Testing and Materials.
Arias, C. A., Bubba, M. D., & Brix, H. (2001). Phosphorus removal by sands for use as media in subsurface flow constructed reed beds. Water Research, 35, 1159–1168.
Aziz, H. A., Othman, N., Yusuff, M. S., Basri, D. R. H., Ashaari, F. A. H., Adlan, M. N., Othman, F., Johari, M., & Perwira, M. (2001). Removal of copper from water using limestone filtration technique: determination of mechanism of removal. Environment International, 26, 399.
Bannerman, R. T., Owens, D. W., Dodds, R. B., & Hornewer, N. J. (1993). Sources of pollutants in Wisconsin stormwater. Water Science and Technology, 28, 241–259.
Bratieres, K., Fletcher, T. D., Deletic, A., & Zinger, Y. (2008). Nutrient and sediment removal by stormwater biofilters: a large-scale design optimisation study. Water Research, 42, 3930–3940.
Chang, N.-B., Hossain, F., & Wanielista, M. (2010). Filter media for nutrient removal in natural systems and built environments: I—Previous trends and perspectives. Environmental Engineering Science, 27, 689–706.
Dastgheibi, S. (2012). Stormwater treatment using in-ground permeable reactive filter systems: batch test evaluation of media. M.S. thesis. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois.
Erdem, E., Karapinar, N., & Donat, R. (2004). The removal of heavy metal cations by natural zeolites. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 280, 309–314.
Ericksona, A. J., Gulliverb, J. S., & Weissc, P. T. (2012). Capturing phosphates with iron enhanced sand filtration. Water Research, 46, 3032–3042.
Ferree, M. A., & Shannon, R. D. (2001). Evaluation of a second derivative UV/Visible spectroscopy technique for nitrate and total nitrogen analysis of wastewater samples. Water Research, 35, 327–332.
Grebel, J. E., Mohanty, S. K., Torkelson, A. A., Boehm, A. B., Higgins, C. P., Maxwell, R. M., Nelson, K. L., & Sedlak, D. L. (2013). Engineered infiltration systems for urban stormwater reclamation. Environmental Engineering Science, 30, 437–454.
Ho, Y. S., Huang, C. T., & Huang, H. W. (2002). Equilibrium sorption isotherm for metal ions on tree fern. Process Biochemistry, 37, 1421–1430.
Hogan, D. M., & Walbridge, M. R. (2007). Best management practices for nutrient and sediment retention in urban stormwater runoff. Environmental Quality, 36, 386–395.
Lee, J. H., & Bang, K. W. (2000). Characterization of urban stormwater runoff. Water Research, 34, 1773–1780.
Li, W., Shen, Z., Tian, T., Liu, R., & Qiu, J. (2012). Temporal variation of heavy metal pollution in urban stormwater runoff. Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering, 6, 692–700.
Lynch, J. A., & Corbett, E. S. (1990). Evaluation of best management practices for controlling nonpoint pollution from silvicultural operations. American Water Resources Association, 2, 41–52.
May, D., & Sivakumar, M. (2009). Prediction of nutrient concentrations in urban storm water. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 135, 586–594.
McBride, M. B. (1994). Environmental Chemistry of Soils. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Pitcher, S. K., Slade, R. C. T., & Ward, N. I. (2004). Heavy metal removal from motorway stormwater using zeolites. Science of the Total Environment, 334–335, 161–166.
Reddy, K.R. (2013). Reactive stormwater filter to prevent beach water pollution. Final Project Report, Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, USEPA, Region 5, Chicago, IL.
Reddy, K.R., Xie, T., & Dastgheibi, S. (2013). Adsorption of mixed nutrients and heavy metals from simulated urban stormwater by different filter materials. Journal of Environmental Science & Health, in press.
Schueler, T. R., Kumble, P. A. & Heraty, M. A. (1992). A current assessment of urban best management practices. Metropolitan Washington Council of Govs., Washington, DC.
Sharma, H. D., & Reddy, K. R. (2004). Geoenvironmental engineering: site remediation, waste containment, and emerging waste management technologies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Stumm, W., & Morgan, J. J. (1981). Aquatic chemistry: an introduction emphasizing chemical equilibria in natural waters. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (2013). Stormwater management best practices. www.epa.gov/oaintrnt/stormwater/best_practices.htm. Accessed 29 Oct 2013.
Urbonas, B., & Stahre, P. (1993). Stormwater: best management practices and detention for water quality, drainage, and CSO management.
Westerhoff, P., & James, J. (2003). Nitrate removal in zero-valent iron packed columns. Water Research, 37, 1818–1830.
Yu, J., Yu, H., & Xu, L. (2013). Performance evaluation of various stormwater best management practices. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 20, 6160–6171.
Acknowledgement
Financial support for this project is provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes National Program Office (under Grant Number GL00E00526). The support for the second author is provided by the China Scholarship Council. The assistance of Giridhar Prabukumar, Krishna Pagilla, Preethi Chinchoud, Poupak Yaghoubi, Alexander Hardaway, and Hanumanth Kulkarni is gratefully acknowledged.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reddy, K.R., Xie, T. & Dastgheibi, S. Nutrients Removal from Urban Stormwater by Different Filter Materials. Water Air Soil Pollut 225, 1778 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1778-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1778-8