Aqueous Pollutant Capture by Enhanced Filter Media

Project summary:

This project seeks to provide an important evolutionary step in improving stormwater treatment to remove dissolved nutrients and heavy metals by developing a technology that is applicable to urban and agriculture environments. The new technology, enhanced soil and sand filter media, will be available for use in stormwater sand filters, infiltration systems, rain gardens, buffer strips, and other treatment systems. After a state-of-the-art review identifies materials that have the ability to remove dissolved metals and nutrients from stormwater, laboratory batch studies will help determine the materials with the greatest potential. Column studies will then be used to optimize media design standards. In a public education and outreach effort, the new media will be installed in field demonstration pilot studies and their performance will be assessed. Design standards for using the new technology in new and renovated stormwater treatment practices will be published, possibly in the Minnesota Stormwater Manual. Educational outreach will occur through webinars, incorporation into University of Minnesota Extension Services Stormwater U classes, and publication in UPDATES, our quarterly stormwater research newsletter, which is distributed to over 2,000 interested parties. The new technology will also be utilized in pilot studies in collaboration with cities, watershed districts, and/or local governments. Implementation of the technology will result in significant removal of the dissolved fraction of heavy metal and nutrient loads from stormwater runoff.