Wet-weather pollution prevention by product substitution

A literature review of urban stormwater runoff and building/construction materials has shown that many materials such as galvanized metal, concrete, asphalt, and wood products, have the potential to release pollutants into urban stormwater runoff, and snowmelt. However, much of this previous research cannot be directly applied to estimating pollutant loadings from runoff. One limitation is that the studies were not performed using actual stormwater runoff. A second limitation is that they did not mimic the cyclic wet-dry weathering to which these materials are exposed. The weathering phenomena, which may result in the weakening of the strength of the materials, may significantly impact the release of these pollutants. This paper will discuss an ongoing research project that is investigating the pollutant releases from typical materials used for infrastructure construction.