EWRI Testing Program For Baffle Box and Vortechs Unit BMPs at University of Texas Center For Research inWater Resources

摘要

NPDES and TMDLs have brought a new awareness of stormwater quality issues to communities across America the last several years. As these communities have moved forward with stormwater utilities and begun implementation of retrofit projects, there have been numerous questions regarding the selection of the sometimes bewildering array of newly developed BMPs. Many of these smaller end-of-pipe BMPs are proprietary systems marketed by vendors who purport product effectiveness based on a wide range of testing programs. rnTo date there has been no standardized testing protocols or programs to provide a realistic comparison of these BMPs to verify manufacturer’s claims of pollutant removal efficiencies. Historical BMP testing has consisted of field monitoring of installations under a wide range of pollutant loadings, storm events, monitoring procedures, and product sizes. This has led to obvious limitations on pollutant loadings and repeatability of measured results. Any testing program which is rainfall driven will be handicapped by these limitations. Due to these highly variable conditions, it has not been possible to make accurate predictions of BMP effectiveness over the wide range of real world conditions that confront a community’s engineer tasked with designing BMPs to meet regulatory goals. This program will be an Environmental Water Resources Institute (EWRI) sanctioned, independent laboratory study of full sized proprietary BMPs, providing certification of BMP performance.rn The program is being sponsored by EWRI’s Urban Water Infrastructure Management Committee (UWIMC). The testing regime will be consistent for all BMPs so that there are true apples and apples comparisons.