Complex interactions among nutrients, chlorophyll-a, and microcystins in three stormwater wet detention basins with floating treatment wetlands.

Stormwater wet detention ponds hold a permanent pool of water and offer many beneficial uses including flood mitigation, pollution prevention, downstream erosion control, increased aesthetics, and recreational uses. Although the removal of nutrients is generally low for stormwater wet detention ponds in urban areas, floating treatment wetlands (FTWs) can be installed to offer an innovative solution toward naturally removing excess nutrients and aiding in stormwater management. To improve the stormwater reuse potential, this study assessed nutrient, microcystin, and chlorophyll-a interactions in three Florida stormwater wet detention ponds with recently implemented FTWs.

System dynamics modeling of nitrogen removal in a stormwater infiltration basin with biosorption-activated media.

Stormwater infiltration basins, one of the typical stormwater best management practices, are commonly constructed for surface water pollution control, flood mitigation, and groundwater restoration in rural or residential areas. These basins have soils with better infiltration capacity than the native soil; however, the ever-increasing contribution of nutrients to groundwater from stormwater due to urban expansion makes existing infiltration basins unable to meet groundwater quality criteria related to environmental sustainability and public health. This issue requires retrofitting current infiltration basins for flood control as well as nutrient control before the stormwater enters the groundwater.

Nutrient removal using biosorption activated media: preliminary biogeochemical assessment of an innovative stormwater infiltration basin.

Soil beneath a stormwater infiltration basin receiving runoff from a 23 ha predominantly residential watershed in north-central Florida, USA, was amended using biosorption activated media (BAM) to study the effectiveness of this technology in reducing inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus to groundwater. The functionalized soil amendment BAM consists of a 1.0:1.

Soil property control of biogeochemical processes beneath two subtropical stormwater infiltration basins.

Substantially different biogeochemical processes affecting nitrogen fate and transport were observed beneath two stormwater infiltration basins in north-central Florida. Differences are related to soil textural properties that deeply link hydroclimatic conditions with soil moisture variations in a humid, subtropical climate. During 2008, shallow groundwater beneath the basin with predominantly clayey soils (median, 41% silt+clay) exhibited decreases in dissolved oxygen from 3.

Identification of spatiotemporal nutrient patterns in a coastal bay via an integrated k-means clustering and gravity model.

This study presents an integrated k-means clustering and gravity model (IKCGM) for investigating the spatiotemporal patterns of nutrient and associated dissolved oxygen levels in Tampa Bay, Florida. By using a k-means clustering analysis to first partition the nutrient data into a user-specified number of subsets, it is possible to discover the spatiotemporal patterns of nutrient distribution in the bay and capture the inherent linkages of hydrodynamic and biogeochemical features. Such patterns may then be combined with a gravity model to link the nutrient source contribution from each coastal watershed to the generated clusters in the bay to aid in the source proportion analysis for environmental management.

Modeling the system dynamics for nutrient removal in an innovative septic tank media filter.

A next generation septic tank media filter to replace or enhance the current on-site wastewater treatment drainfields was proposed in this study. Unit operation with known treatment efficiencies, flow pattern identification, and system dynamics modeling was cohesively concatenated in order to prove the concept of a newly developed media filter. A multicompartmental model addressing system dynamics and feedbacks based on our assumed microbiological processes accounting for aerobic, anoxic, and anaerobic conditions in the media filter was constructed and calibrated with the aid of in situ measurements and the understanding of the flow patterns.

A tracer study for assessing the interactions between hydraulic retention time and transport processes in a wetland system for nutrient removal.

In this study, a new-generation subsurface upflow wetland (SUW) system packed with the unique sorption media was introduced for nutrient removal. To explore the interface between hydraulic and environmental performance, a tracer study was carried out in concert with a transport model to collectively provide hydraulic retention time (7.1 days) and compelling evidence of pollutant fate and transport processes.