Performance Testing of Coagulants to Reduce Stormwater Runoff Turbidity

On December 1, 2009, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a rule in the Federal Register establishing non-numeric and, for the first time, numeric effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs). The numeric ELGs included a turbidity limit of 280 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) and sampling requirements for stormwater discharges from construction sites that disturb 20 or more acres of land at one time. At that time, the EPA required Texas to implement these new requirements when the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) renewed their Texas Construction General Permit (CGP) in 2013. Due to litigation regarding the initial numeric ELG implementation, the EPA put numeric ELGs on hold in 2011 and on April 13, 2013, proposed to withdraw the numeric ELG as a requirement. This project was initiated in 2010 to prepare the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for changes to the CGP regarding the monitoring and sampling of their construction site to meet the anticipated numeric ELG requirements. The scope of the project was modified due to EPA’s actions. However, in light of anticipated future numeric limits, the project’s monitoring and testing experiments proceeded to 1) determine “typical turbidity” representative of TxDOT’s construction site discharges, 2) collect performance data on innovative erosion and sediment control measures that might be expected to achieve the discharge standard, and 3) provide update to TxDOT’s Stormwater Managements Guidelines for Construction Activities.

• Record URL:
  http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6638-1.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://library.ctr.utexas.edu/Presto/catalogid=32645
• Summary URL:
  http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-6638-S.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Project Title: Preparing for EPA Effluent Limitation Guidelines.
• Corporate Authors:

  Texas A&M Transportation Institute

  Texas A&M University System
  3135 TAMU
  College Station, TX  United States  77843-3135

  Texas Department of Transportation

  Research and Technology Implementation Office, P.O. Box 5080
  Austin, TX  United States  78763-5080

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • McFalls, Jett
  • Rounce, David
  • Yi, Young-Jae
  • Cleveland, Ted
  • Storey, Beverly
  • Murphy, Holly
  • Barrett, Michael
  • Dalton, Desirae
  • Lawler, Desmond
  • Morse, Audra
  • Eck, Brad
  • Herrmann, George R
• Publication Date: 2014-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Technical Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 86p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Coagulation; Construction sites; Effluents; Erosion control; Runoff; Sediments; Turbidity
• Geographic Terms: Texas
• Subject Areas: Construction; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; I26: Water Run-off - Freeze-thaw;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01529406
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA/TX-14/0-6638-1, 0-6638-1
• Contract Numbers: 0-6638
• Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Jun 30 2014 9:41AM