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New Book Released! "Optimizing Stormwater Treatment Practices: A Handbook of Assessment and Maintenance"

May 2013 (volume 8 - issue 5)

Contributed by Andy Erickson, Research Fellow, University of Minnesota.

The University of Minnesota, Valparaiso University, and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory are proud to announce the release of a NEW book on assessment and maintenance of stormwater treatment practices! Optimizing Stormwater Treatment Practices: A Handbook of Assessment and Maintenance is intended to be a resource to cost-effectively assess the performance of, and schedule maintenance for, stormwater treatment practices. Maintenance should never occur without an accurate assessment of the operating condition of a stormwater treatment practice. Thus, this book first details a three-tiered approach that offers readers a standard protocol for how to determine the effectiveness of stormwater treatment practices currently in place. It provides distinct levels of standardized assessment methodology, in increasing cost and difficulty, from which the user can select only those methods that are necessary. It also provides instructions on how to successfully complete an assessment of a stormwater treatment practice, including all required tasks, sample and data analysis, and other items. Finally, the book provides detailed guidance on how to use the information gathered during assessment to select and schedule the most appropriate maintenance actions.

The methods presented in this book will:

• Help users select cost-efficient assessment methods
• Help users develop an assessment program
• Ensure that an assessment program yields meaningful results
• Provide guidelines for reporting results and scheduling maintenance
• Allow for more meaningful comparisons between assessment and maintenance results of different stormwater treatment practices

The intended audience for this book includes engineers, planners, consultants, watershed district personnel, municipal staff, and natural resource managers, among others. Thus, case studies have been included, when possible, to provide practical examples related to the concepts discussed.

Links to Purchase: Springer, Amazon.com, and Google Search.

More About the Book

A powerful tool in the book is the guidance and supporting documents for visual inspection of stormwater treatment practices. Checklists for visual inspection have been developed from interactions with practitioners for many stormwater treatment practices. Samples are provided in the book and a complete list of visual inspection checklists are available from the publisher’s web site. The inspection methods, which are proven in the field and have been implemented successfully, are necessary as regulatory agencies are demanding evaluations of the performance of stormwater treatment practices. These standard checklists can be used to develop or augment an inspection program, document performance, and significantly reduce maintenance costs.

Some assessment programs will require accurate measurement or estimation of water budget components such as open channel flow, infiltration, and rainfall. The book compares and provides recommendations for many measurement devices and techniques such as flow meters, weirs, rain gauges, infiltrometers, and permeameters. In addition, measuring performance for water quality impacts will often require sampling and analysis. The book provides detailed discussion and recommendations for sampling methods (e.g., in situ, grab, automatic) and analysis of water and soils, including quality assurance and control.

Once all the assessment data is collected, performance must be calculated. The book discusses several methods and provides recommendations for calculating performance based on load captured, event mean concentration (EMC), and percent exceedance. To ensure statistical confidence, techniques and guidance for estimating uncertainty are also provided. Numerous examples with real assessment data are provided to illustrate every step of the calculations.

The book illustrates how readers can use the assessment results to select and schedule any maintenance that may be required. Also included is guidance on expected maintenance schedules, level of effort, and costs based on information collected from municipalities and public works departments.

The book provides methodology for assessment and maintenance through discussion, equations, examples, figures, tables, and case studies (see examples below). Much of the information in the book has been significantly expanded, updated, and reorganized compared to the online manual (http://stormwaterbook.safl.umn.edu). Now you can find more information, clearer explanations, better example calculations, and find it all more easily.

Sample material from the Book

Flow Rate Equations and Examples

 

 

Flow Rate Figures and Schematics

 

 

Flow Rate Data Tables

 

Experience with Maintenance

 

Visual Inspection Checklists

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Let us know your thoughts, experiences, and questions by posting a comment.