Distribution Characteristics of Pollutants and Their Mutual Influence in Highway Runoff

Many environmental pollution issues from highway runoff increasingly become a serious concern, which has been revealed by many previous studies. However, very less information is available on the distribution characteristics of pollutants and their mutual influence in highway runoff. In this paper, the partitioning of pollutant and particle size distribution were investigated based on the initial road runoff of 47 rainfall events from July 2007 to May 2009 on the Lukou section of the Nanjing Airport Expressway, China. This study is emphasizing on the analysis of the mutual impact of pollutant distribution and the relationship between particle size and pollutant distribution. The impact of rainfall characteristics, water temperature, and pH values in runoff samples on the pollutant distribution was also studied. Result shows that partitioning of different pollutants was varying significantly. Volume of particles in different sizes was different, with the highest volume of particles of 21–75 µm size. The distribution of COD highly affected the distribution of TN, and somewhat promoted the distribution of Pb in particles. TP, Pb, and Cd promoted distribution of each other's in particles. There was better competition among Zn, Cu, and Cd, when heavy metals combined with particles. The particles ranged between 21 and 75 µm size had an obvious impact on the distribution of COD, Pb, and TN in the particulate matter. TP in the particulate matter mainly distributed in particles ranged in 151–300 µm size. Rainfall duration significantly affected the Pb in particulate matter. The distribution of Zn in the particulate matter mostly was affected by pH values.