Protecting Baltimore`s waters from toxic substances in urban storm drains
- Baltimore City Dept. of Public Works, MD (United States)
The City of Baltimore received a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) municipal storm water permit in January 1994. A major effort under the permit was to develop a program to identify and eliminate illicit entries into the municipal storm water system. Approximately one third of the storm drain outfalls have been targeted under this program. The outfalls correspond to sections of the storm drain system inspected for the development of a storm drain infra-structure data base. During the infra-structure inspections, samples were collected and flow measurements were taken at storm water outfalls. Any suspended illicit discharges were sent to the laboratory where they were analyzed for a suite of toxicants and other pollutants include: surfactants, phenols, ammonia, copper, lead, zinc, residual chlorine and total petroleum hydrocarbons. The laboratory data provided the basis for ranking the subwatersheds from least to most polluted. These rankings were then used to design a dry weather sampling program so that the most polluted watersheds are sampled more frequently (e.g., monthly) than the least polluted (annually). Repeated high pollution levels initiate an investigation at sequential sampling points upstream until the pipe segment receiving the discharge is identified. A geographical information system is used to assist in identifying potential sources of contamination (e.g., industries) in the suspected drain segment.
- OSTI ID:
- 460538
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961149-; TRN: IM9718%%119
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 17. annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry: partnerships for the environment - science, education, and policy, Washington, DC (United States), 17-21 Nov 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of SETAC 17. annual meeting -- Abstract book. Partnerships for the environment: Science, education, and policy; PB: 378 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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