ABSTRACT:
Stormwater runoff may contribute to groundwater pollution. This study evaluated seasonal influence on runoff water quality and compared urban runoff water quality with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standard. Stormwater from sixteen playa lakes were evaluated for total and dissolved elements during a 32-month period. Twenty elements were monitored to determine if concentrations posed a potential groundwater pollution problem. Eleven of the elements evaluated were temporally correlated with season of the year for both total and dissolved concentrations. Seasonal significances of the total and dissolved elemental concentrations were explained by natural or anthropogenic causes. The majority of the elements considered hazardous to human health, appeared in low conceptions in these urban stormwater fed lake waters during the study period. Concentrations of total and dissolved Al and Fe exceeded the U.S. EPA's secondary drinking water standard (cosmetic and aesthetic, not health). No significant health risk would seem to be posed by this urban stormwater runoff percolating to groundwater.
Footnotes
Richard E. Zartman is with the Department of Plant and Soil Science; Ralph H. Ramsey III and Aizhen Huang are with the Department of Civil Engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
- Copyright 2001 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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