Role of Sediments in Insecticide Runoff from Urban Surfaces: Analysis and Modeling.

Insecticides, such as pyrethroids, have frequently been detected in runoff from urban areas, and their offsite transport can cause aquatic toxicity in urban streams and estuaries. To better understand the wash-off process of pesticide residues in urban runoff, the association of pyrethroids with sediment in runoff from residential surfaces was investigated in two watersheds located in Northern California (Sacramento County). Rainfall, flow rate, and event mean concentrations/loads of sediments and pyrethroids, collected during seasonal monitoring campaigns from 2007 to 2014, were analyzed to identify relationships among stormwater quality and rainfall characteristics, primarily using Principal Component Analysis (PCA).

A biogeochemical model of contaminant fate and transport in river waters and sediments.

A quasi-two-dimensional model is presented for simulating transport and transformation of contaminant species in river waters and sediments, taking into account the effect of both biotic and abiotic geochemical reactions on the contaminant fate and mobility. The model considers the downstream transport of dissolved and sediment-associated species, and the mass transfer with bed sediments due to erosion and resuspension, using linked advection-dispersion-reaction equations. The model also couples both equations to the reactive transport within bed sediment phases.

Localized turbulent flows on scouring granular beds.

In many applications a sustained, localized turbulent flow scours a cohesionless granular bed to form a pothole. Here we use similarity methods to derive a theoretical formula for the equilibrium depth of the pothole. Whereas the empirical formulas customarily used in applications contain numerous free exponents, the theoretical formula contains a single one, which we show can be determined via the phenomenological theory of turbulence.