Estimating risks for water-quality exceedances of total-copper from highway and urban runoff under predevelopment and current conditions with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)

By:  and 
Edited by: Christopher N. Dunn and Brian Van Weele

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Abstract

The stochastic empirical loading and dilution model (SELDM) was used to demonstrate methods for estimating risks for water-quality exceedances of event-mean concentrations (EMCs) of total-copper. Monte Carlo methods were used to simulate stormflow, total-hardness, suspended-sediment, and total-copper EMCs as stochastic variables. These simulations were done for the Charles River Basin upstream of Interstate 495 in Bellingham, Massachusetts. The hydrology and water quality of this site were simulated with SELDM by using data from nearby, hydrologically similar sites. Three simulations were done to assess the potential effects of the highway on receiving-water quality with and without highway-runoff treatment by a structural best-management practice (BMP). In the low-development scenario, total copper in the receiving stream was simulated by using a sediment transport curve, sediment chemistry, and sediment-water partition coefficients. In this scenario, neither the highway runoff nor the BMP effluent caused concentration exceedances in the receiving stream that exceed the once in three-year threshold (about 0.54 percent). In the second scenario, without the highway, runoff from the large urban areas in the basin caused exceedances in the receiving stream in 2.24 percent of runoff events. In the third scenario, which included the effects of the urban runoff, neither the highway runoff nor the BMP effluent increased the percentage of exceedances in the receiving stream. Comparison of the simulated geometric mean EMCs with data collected at a downstream monitoring site indicates that these simulated values are within the 95-percent confidence interval of the geometric mean of the measured EMCs.

Publication type Conference Paper
Publication Subtype Conference Paper
Title Estimating risks for water-quality exceedances of total-copper from highway and urban runoff under predevelopment and current conditions with the Stochastic Empirical Loading and Dilution Model (SELDM)
ISBN 978-0-7844-8060-1
DOI 10.1061/9780784480601.028
Year Published 2017
Language English
Publisher American Society of Civil Engineers
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) New England Water Science Center
Description 15 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Subtype Conference publication
Larger Work Title World environmental and water resources congress 2017: Watershed management, irrigation and drainage, and water resources planning and management
First page 313
Last page 327
Conference Title World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2017
Conference Location Sacremento, CA
Conference Date May 21-25, 2017
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