Performance of Vegetative Controls for Treating Highway Runoff

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Abstract
Vegetative storm water controls include grassed swales and vegetated filter strips. The effectiveness of these controls for removing pollutants found in runoff from highways and other urban areas has not been demonstrated to the satisfaction of regulatory agencies; therefore, these technologies have been limited to applications as pretreatment devices for other structural runoff controls. Many highways in Texas and other areas discharge storm water to grassy medians and shoulder areas, which act as both filter strips and grassed swales. The runoff flows overland down the sides of the median as in a filter strip and then parallel to the highway as in a grassed swale. This study investigated the capability of vegetated highway medians for treating storm water runoff in the Austin, Tex. area. Two medians on major highways were monitored to document pollutant removal efficiencies. The medians were designed solely for storm water conveyance and differed in slope and vegetation type. In addition, the highways a...

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