Mitigation of Deicing Salt Loading to Water Resources by Transpiration from Green Infrastructure Vegetation

Wuhuan Zhang, Charles R. Burgis, Gail M. Hayes, Derek A. Henderson and James A. Smith
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Wuhuan Zhang: Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia, 351 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
Charles R. Burgis: Department of Environmental Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Gail M. Hayes: Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia, 351 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
Derek A. Henderson: Department of Environmental Engineering, Florida Polytechnic University, 4700 Research Way, Lakeland, FL 33805, USA
James A. Smith: Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, University of Virginia, 351 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Green infrastructure (GI) protects aquatic ecosystems from stormwater runoff caused by urban development. Bioretention (BR) is a typical GI system wherein stormwater runoff is routed to a soil basin planted with vegetation and has been shown to reduce deicing salt loads in surface runoff, but the removal mechanism of salt is poorly understood. This study explores the potential of different vegetation types to reduce deicing salt released from a BR by transpiration. Six engineered soil media columns were built in a laboratory greenhouse to simulate a 1012 m 2 BR basin along Lorton Road, Fairfax County, VA, USA. The effect of vegetation type (Blue Wild Indigo and Broadleaf Cattail) and influent salt concentration on flow volume and salt mass reduction were quantified for multiple storm events. For all storm events, chloride inflow concentrations, and vegetation types, Cl − load reduction ranged from 26.1% to 33.5%, Na + load reduction ranged from 38.2% to 47.4%, and volume reductions ranged from 11.4% to 41.9%. Different inflow salt concentrations yielded different removal rates of deicing salt, and for a given column, salt removal decreased over sequential storm events. For each influent salt concentration, columns planted with Broadleaf Cattail (BC) performed better for volume and salt mass reductions than columns planted with Blue Wild Indigo (BWI), which in turn performed better than the controls.

Keywords: green infrastructure (GI); bioretention (BR); water quality; vegetation; deicing salt; stormwater runoff; winter road treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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