Stormwater quality variations during storm events in a small urban watershed of a South America city

COLLINS P.; VALSAGNA I

JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

Elsevier

Lugar: Berkeley; Año: 2005

0301-4797

Several studies have recognized that urban stormwater discharge is an important source of non-point pollutants for the aquatic environments, but its biological effects have been scarcely studied. This study shows the water quality variation of drainage runoff for a small urban watershed in an Argentinean city, South American. Variations in solids, nutrients, some heavy metals, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, acute toxicity, precipitation and flow were determined during storm events from a warm and cool period. Concentration-discharge relationships were assessed determining the load variation of the variables monitored. Daphnia magna exhibited intermediate toxic responses and the LC50, for different stormwater moments at each rainfall, were not similar. The preliminary results highlighted the importance of conducting small-scale studies, and assessing general water quality problems facing each watershed. Such a sampling strategy was used to avoid the mistakes in the sampling routine in the context of planning a more detailed monitoring strategy and the management options suitable for urban catchments.