MIPS Project Detail:
Company
High Impact Environmental Inc.
Chestertown
Queen Anne’s
2009
https://highimpactenvironmental.org/
Company Description:
High Impact Environmental Inc. (HIE) is a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, whose mission is to develop programs that implement, promote and educate the public about cost-feasible storm water conservation and management practices in Queen Anne’s and surrounding counties
MIPS Project
Agricultural Stormwater Cascading System
Project #
5306
|
MIPS Round
53
|
Starting Date:
Feb 2014
MIPS Project Challenge:
The overall goal of these research projects was to quantify the amount of sediment, nitrogen, phosphorous, and other pollutants that enter and depart HIE’s pilot Agricultural Storm Water Cascading System.
Project Scope:
Researchers engaged in these projects were slated to evaluate the water quality improvement of HIE’s ASCS. The field site was fully instrumented to monitor rainfall and runoff flows into and out of the treatment for one year. Water quality samples were taken back to the environmental engineering laboratory at UMD for determination of pH, TSS (sediment), TP (total phosphorus), DP (dissolved phosphorus), SRP (soluble reactive phosphorus), TN (total nitrogen), Nitrate, and possibly others. Performance efficiency for the ASCS was evaluated based on percent pollutant mass removal efficiency, effluent pollutant concentrations, and probability distributions with appropriate water quality targets.
Results:
Over the duration of the second study, 27 storm events were successfully sampled and tested. During this time, the basin system provided statistically significant reductions of sediments, total phosphorus and total nitrogen masses. The total runoff volume reduction exhibited by the system was 56 percent, which was significant (according to the company), given that the basin system was undersized compared to what would be recommended for the drainage area it served. Overall, runoff volume storage and reduction (infiltration and evapotranspiration) and concurrent removal of suspended sediments, phosphorus, and nitrogen appeared to be the main treatment mechanisms.
Additional Notes:
The Chesapeake Bay watershed area consists of 8.5 million acres (25 percent of its total land area) under cultivation, of which 30 percent, or 2.5 million acres, is feasible for the HIE Cascading System of Water Cells. Currently, pollution control on agricultural land consists of planting cover crops and constructing filter strips within 150 feet of a stream or body of tidal water. Neither strategy is effective for storm water flowing from higher elevations or from areas as far as a half-mile to a mile from streams or body of tidal water. Cover crops take-up existing nitrogen nutrients in the soil, but the benefits may not be realized for 20-30 years because ground water flows so slowly into Bay waters. Filter strips utilize agricultural land. Additional tools, such as HIE’s system, are needed to address the agricultural runoff challenge. (Source: High Impact Environmental, Inc.)
Funding for this project was provided by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Principal Investigator:
Allen
Davis
Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Project Manager:
Samuel
Owings
President
Technologies:
Environmental Technology / Science
