Evaluation of Stormwater Detention Basins to Improve Water Quality and Enable Emergency Response During Wide-Area Contamination Incidents
Citation:
Sinha, R., J. Goodrich, AND J. Hall. Evaluation of Stormwater Detention Basins to Improve Water Quality and Enable Emergency Response During Wide-Area Contamination Incidents. U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-18/320, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Detention ponds are stormwater management structures that temporarily collect runoff and then release a reduced flow to decrease the risk of flooding. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Research and Development (ORD), National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) under Contract with APTIM Federal Services, LLC. (APTIM) have partnered with Sanitation District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky (SD 1) and the Boone County Conservation District of Northern Kentucky (BCCDKY) to design and test detention pond outfall retrofit devices to determine the effectiveness of these devices in eliminating stream erosion, improving receiving stream water quality, and providing the capability to respond and mitigate wide area contamination incidents.
Description:
Field-scale, pilot-scale, and bench-scale tests were performed to evaluate the function of two innovative detention basin devices that can be quickly deployed to control stormwater contamination events within existing detention basin structures. The devices were designed with the intention of long-term stream water quality improvements by reducing scouring of stream beds, providing treatment of contamination that lead to stream impairment, and reducing the spatial extent of large volumes of contaminated water from wide area contamination incidents and mitigation efforts. The results indicated that multiple contaminants (nutrients, bacteria, and cesium) can be effectively removed by different types of media that are cost effective without jeopardizing the basin's flood prevention capability.