Estimation of Pollutant EMCs and Loadings in Highway Runoff

The nonpoint source control is based on TPLMS (Total Pollution Load Management System) program. Recently, the Ministry of Environment in Korea has programed TPLMS for 4 major large rivers to improve the water quality in rivers by controling the total pollutant loadings from the watershed area. Usually the urbanization is the main pollutant sources, particularly for nonpoint pollutants, because of high imperviousness and high pollutant mass emissions. The stormwater runoff from urban areas is containing various pollutants such as sediments, metals and toxic chemicals due to human and vehicle activities. Of the various landuses, the highways are highly polluted landuses because of high pollutant accumulation rate by vehicle activities during dry periods. Therefore, this research is achieved to provide pollutant EMCs (Event Mean Concentrations) and mass loadings washed-off from highways during rainfall periods. Five monitoring locations were equipped with an automatic rainfall gage and an flow meter. The results show that the EMC ranges for 95% confidence intervals in highway land use are 45.52-125.76 mg/L for TSS, 52.04-95.48 mg/L for COD, 1.77-4.48 mg/L for TN, 0.29-0.54 mg/L for TP. The ranges of washed- off mass loading are for TSS and for COD.