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Stormwater monitoring using on-line UV-Vis spectroscopy

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Abstract

Stormwater runoff contains a myriad of pollutants, including faecal microbes, and can pose a threat to urban water supplies, impacting both economic development and public health. Therefore, it is a necessity to implement a real-time hazard detection system that can collect a substantial amount of data, assisting water authorities to develop preventive strategies to ensure the control of hazards entering drinking water sources. An on-line UV-Vis spectrophotometer was applied in the field to collect real-time continuous data for various water quality parameters (nitrate, DOC, turbidity and total suspended solids) during three storm events in Mannum, Adelaide, Australia. This study demonstrated that the trends for on-line and comparative laboratory-analysed samples were complimentary through the events. Nitrate and DOC showed a negative correlation with water level, while turbidity and total suspended solids indicated a positive correlation with water level during the high rainfall intensity. The correlations among nitrate, DOC, turbidity, total suspended solids and water level are the opposite during low rainfall intensity. Nitrate, one of the main pollutants in stormwater, was investigated and used as a surrogate parameter for microbial detection. However, the microbiological data (Escherichia coli) from captured storm events showed poor correlations to nitrate and other typical on-line parameters in this study. This is possibly explained by the nature of the stormwater catchment outside of rain events, where the sources of bacteria and nutrients may be physically separated until mixed during surface runoff as a result of rainfall. In addition, the poor correlations among the microbiological data and on-line parameters could be due to the different sources of bacteria and nutrients that were transported to the stormwater drain where sampling and measurement were conducted.

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Funding

This project was financially supported by the Water Quality Research Australia (Project No.1020-09) and a SA Water Capital Project for the setup the of monitoring system. The authors are grateful to Ms. Gretchen Schroeder, Water Data Service, DCM Process Control Ltd, and Water Treatment and Microbiology Research units, Australian Water Quality Centre, for technical and analytical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scarce Resources and Circular Economy (ScaRCE), UniSA STEM, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia

    Jianyin Huang, Christopher W. K. Chow, Paul Monis & Christopher P. Saint

  2. Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, 5095, Australia

    Jianyin Huang, Christopher W. K. Chow & Christopher P. Saint

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia

    Zhining Shi & Bo Jin

  4. Australian Water Quality Centre, SA Water, 250 Victoria Square, Adelaide, SA, 5000, Australia

    Rolando Fabris, Amanda Mussared, Gary Hallas & Paul Monis

Authors
  1. Jianyin Huang
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  2. Christopher W. K. Chow
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  3. Zhining Shi
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  4. Rolando Fabris
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  7. Paul Monis
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  8. Bo Jin
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  9. Christopher P. Saint
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Contributions

Jianyin Huang, data analysis and manuscript writing. Christopher W. K. Chow, experimental design, data analysis and manuscript writing. Zhining Shi, data analysis and manuscript writing. Rolando Fabris, experimental design and data analysis. Amanda Mussared, experimental design and data analysis. Gary Hallas, experimental design and data analysis. Paul Monis, experimental design, data analysis and manuscript writing. Bo Jin, experimental design and data analysis. Christopher P. Saint, experiment design, data analysis and manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to Christopher W. K. Chow.

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Huang, J., Chow, C.W.K., Shi, Z. et al. Stormwater monitoring using on-line UV-Vis spectroscopy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 19530–19539 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17056-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17056-7

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