Water Quality Study on Urban Wet Detention

by Jy S. Wu, Univ of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States,
Bob Holman, Univ of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States,
John Dorney, Univ of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States,



Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Design of Urban Runoff Quality Controls

Abstract:

This paper summarizes results of a monitoring program conducted on three urban wet detention ponds located within the Piedmont region of North Carolina, in the city of Charlotte. Data collected from five storm events were employed to develop a relationship between detention pond performance and pond surface/watershed area ratios. In comparison with data from the NURP study, runoff quality of the study area is generally better and runoff sediment can be characterized by a finer particle size distribution. The attenuation of peak discharge appears unsatisfactory due to short circuiting of local drainage entering the detention ponds from surrounding areas. Despite the fact that these detention ponds were not built for water quality control, the observed improvement in water quality justifies the promising use of wet ponds for urban runoff pollution abatement.

Subject Headings: Water quality | Detention basins | Municipal water | Retention basins | Water pollution | Drainage basins | Urban areas | North Carolina

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