Removal efficiency of storm water treatment techniques: standardized full scale laboratory testing

Sedimentation devices have been widely implemented to remove suspended solids and attached pollutants from stormwater before entering surface waters. The treatment performance of these best management practices (BMPs) on fine particles is rarely investigated in a standardized way. To overcome this information gap a reliable and standardized testing procedure is formulated.Four devices have been tested on their suspended sediments removal efficiency at different discharges and particle sizes, using the newly developed standardized full scale test method. The observed removal rates of the facilities with a storage volume in the order of 1.5 m(3) and settling surface around 1 m(2) drop to low removal efficiencies at flow rates of 10 l/s or more. For small sized sediments (up to 63 m) the removal efficiency is below 50%. The results of the experiments can be used to improve both the design and the dimensions of stormwater treatment devices.