Pollutant Export from Various Land Uses in the Upper Neuse River Basin

Abstract

Because of the relatively high variability of pollutant export from urban land uses, a significant number of monitoring studies, including data from many storms, are needed to adequately characterize export from urban land uses. Pollutant runoff from six small drainage areas with different land uses was monitored for at least 20 storm events over the course of more than 1 year. The land uses included singlefamily residential, golf course, industrial, dairy cow pasture, construction site, and wooded site. Average event mean concentrations and total annual load were computed for nitrogen forms, total phosphorus, and sediment from the land uses. Annual total nitrogen export was greatest for the construction land use during the house-building phase, followed closely by the residential and golf course land uses. Total phosphorus export was greatest for the golf course site followed by the pasture and residential land uses. Sediment export was greatest for the construction site during the rough grading phase, which averaged more than 10 times more sediment export than any of the other sites. To estimate export from a multiuse urban watershed, total nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment export from the residential, golf course, and construction sites were averaged. The average total nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment export from the three land uses was, respectively, 269, 302, and 256% greater than the corresponding exports from the wooded site, which was considered similar to the predevelopment land use. Additionally, analyses of rainfall samples indicated that a considerable portion of the nitrogen export from these sites likely comes from nitrogen in rainfall. Water Environ. Res., 74, 100 (2002).

Comprehensive trend analysis of nutrients and related variables in a large eutrophic estuary: A decadal study of anthropogenic and climatic influences

“…Forest and cultivated croplands decreased ϳ7.28 ϫ 10 3 km 2 over the past decade, giving way to land development (USDA 2001;Line et al 2002; National Agricultural Statistics Service 2004). The watershed also contains ϳ1.75 ϫ 10 6 swine (ϳ3.5ϫ10 6 swine produced per year, or 18% of the state's annual total, mostly in concentrated animal feed operations or CAFOs), contributing an equivalent in sewage of about 7 million people (American Society of Agricultural Engineers 1998), and ϳ4.8 ϫ 10 7 poultry produced per year (USDA 2001; Table 1).…”

Comparative impacts of stormwater runoff on water quality of an urban, a suburban, and a rural stream

“…Nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) are problematic pollutants in urban stormwater runoff (Bannerman et al 1993;Line et al 2002). Likewise, in agricultural areas, rainfall-driven runoff of phosphorus into streams is problematic (Edwards and Daniel 1992) and occurs both from the erosion of particulate phosphorus and surface or subsurface movement of dissolved phosphorus (Sims et al 1998;Nash and Halliwell 2000).…”

Nitrogen input from residential lawn care practices in suburban watersheds in Baltimore county, MD

“…For example, field studies have found low concentrations of nitrate in storm run-off from fertilized lawns (Petrovic, 1990;Garn, 2002), with the exception of storm events after fertilizer applications (Kelling & Peterson, 1975). For example, Line et al (2002), working in suburban sites in North Carolina, measured nitrogen concentrations to be four times higher in run-off from single family residential land uses during February compared to fall or winter concentrations. Seasonal variability has also been observed for soil water nitrate concentrations from fertilized lawns.…”