Local infiltration devices at parking sites - Experimental assessment of temporal changes in hydraulic and contaminant removal capacity

On site infiltration of stormwater is a common practice in order to avoid hydraulic overload of the urban drainage system. If hydrological conditions allow on-site infiltration - this is even mandatory from a legal point of view. Focus in this work is on surface infiltration of stormwater from parking lots. Proper operation of those devices is assumed to be appr. 15 years, as permits granted are limited to this time. Questions are raised whether this considered life expectancy is feasible. One apprehension is a possible clogging effect reducing the hydraulic capacity of the swale. The second aim was to identify magnitudes of accumulated pollutant loads with respect to limitations onto lifetime. The experimental investigation covered infiltration swales of different ages from eleven supermarket parking lots in Tyrol. Hydraulic permeabilities were assessed as well as chemical conditions of the soil material regarding hydrocarbon index (HI) and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd). Further mass balance of contaminants has been performed in order to assess the operational life time based on pollutant load consideration. Calculations were based on load estimations using literature based minima and maxima concentrations from surface flows. Testing the correlation of hydraulic and pollutant measurements against site specific parameters (age, traffic load) revealed no distinct relation. In general all measured pollutants were found under limit concentrations. Mass balance calculations showed that limit concentrations are not exceeded either for worst case loading and considering 15 years of operation.