A Temporal View of Stormwater Chemical Levels in Dayton, OH

Stormwater runoff has been a growing area of interest for many years. After the Clean Water Act insured that point source pollution became more regulated, attention has shifted to non-point sources of pollution, such as runoff from impervious surfaces. These surfaces, such as pavement and buildings, collect substances like oil, fertilizer, and salt that build over time. When a rain event occurs, these substances are washed off and enter into Dayton’s stormwater system, and eventually make their way to the city’s rivers via outfalls. Not only do impervious surfaces result in the collection of harmful contaminants, they also result in an abundance of runoff, because the water is not able to soak into the soil, which would also filter out many of these contaminants. It is important to monitor the stormwater entering Dayton’s rivers to be aware of any unusual concentrations and characterize the impact of the MS4 to the rivers. To do this, the Environmental Management division of the City of Dayton Department of Water regularly samples water coming from the 560 outfalls in the city. For this project, the data collected from 2000-2015 was analyzed using the statistical analysis program R. The analyses were based off of the hypothesis that stormwater quality going to each of the area’s rivers would improve through time. This is because there has been added attention given to stormwater protection over time. This long-term data set, covering the last 15 years, is an asset to understanding the health of Dayton’s rivers, and provides insight into our collective impact on stormwater quality.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/stander_posters/1759/thumbnail.jp