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Title:

Meeting Turbidity Guidelines on Construction Sites: Issues and Opportunities

Accession Number:

01368308

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

Current erosion and sediment control practices on construction sites have been demonstrated to provide a range of water quality improvements in stormwater discharges, but considerable turbidity still remains. Reducing erosion and turbidity from slopes by applying polyacrylamide (PAM) has been well demonstrated over the last 10 years. In addition, a number of recent and current studies are cited which provide some insight to the possibilities of using passive treatment systems (PTS) to introduce flocculants to address the turbidity problem. The introduction of these systems can produce dramatic reductions in turbidity to levels <50-100 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU), as demonstrated for numerous storm events on many sites. On these active construction sites, no turbidity limit was being enforced so the function of a PTS was often compromised by construction activities. However, it is possible to quickly mitigate needed construction disturbances if the skill and motivation are in place. Overall, successful PTS requires sufficient training of construction site staff, primarily the grading crew, in PTS functions and problems to avoid. It is likely a person trained in PTS will be needed on staff, or as a contractor. In most cases, the key factor in successful PTS use is routing all water from disturbed areas into the water conveyance with PTS installed. Bypass flows of untreated runoff are often the cause of turbidity spikes. The area immediately around sediment basins needs to be stabilized at all times to prevent the contribution of untreated, turbid runoff into the basin.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFB60 Hydrology, Hydraulics and Water Quality

Monograph Accession #:

01362476

Report/Paper Numbers:

12-1085

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

McLaughlin, Richard A
McCaleb, Melanie M

Pagination:

14p

Publication Date:

2012

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Subject Areas:

Construction; Environment; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; I15: Environment

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2012 Paper #12-1085

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Feb 8 2012 4:59PM