An Experimental Study on Filtration Efficiency of Sand Filter Layers to TSS and COD in Non-point Source Pollutant

Abstract

Prevalent construction of impermeable pavements in urban areas causes diverse water-related environmental issues, such as lowering ground water levels and shortage of water supply for the living. In order to resolve such problems, a rainwater reservoir can be an effective and useful solution. The rainwater reservoir facilitates the hydrologic cycle in urban areas by temporarily retaining precipitation-runoff within a shallow subsurface layer for later use in a dry season. However, in order to use the stored water of precipitation-runoff, non-point source pollutants mostly retained in initial rainfall should be removed before being stored in the reservoir. Therefore, the purification system to filter out the non-point source pollutants is essential for the rainwater reservoir. The conventional soil filtration technology is well known to be able to capture non-point source pollutants in a economical and efficient way. This study adopted a sand filter layer (SFL) as a non-point source pollutant removal system in the rainwater reservoir, and conducted a series of lab-scale chamber tests and field tests to evaluate the pollutant removal efficiency and applicability of SFL. During the laboratory chamber experiments, three types of SFL with the different grain size characteristics were compared in the chamber with a dimension of 20cm×30cm×60cm. To evaluate performance of the reservoir systems, the concentration of the polluted water in terms of TSS (Total Suspended Solids) and COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) were measured and compared. In addition, a reduction in hydraulic conductivity of SFL due to pollutant clogging was indirectly estimated. The optimum SFL selected through the laboratory chamber experiments was verified on the in-situ rainwater reservoir for field applicability.