Impact of Transportation Infrastructure on Stream Water Quality: Contribution from Stormwater Runoff

Stormwater runoff is a vital concern to the health of natural waterbodies and ecosystems within urban watersheds. While there is already ample research dedicated to understanding water quality from urban roadways, few of those studies have focused on measuring the dynamics of how stream water quality during storm conditions changes due to increased pollutant load from major urban roadways. With the goal to develop effective water resource management strategies for an impaired tributary watershed, water quality was monitored at four locations within a subwatershed to determine what impact pavement runoff of a major interstate has on the impaired receiving stream. Flow-weighted composite samples of suspended solids, nutrients, and indicator microorganisms were taken along the receiving stream before and after the input of runoff from the interstate. Roadway stormwater runoff was sampled from the pavement as well as from the grassy swale along the interstate roadway.