Research about Davenport, Iowa

USGS1995

Urban stormwater runoff study at Davenport, Iowa

Urban storm water runoff is being investigated as a nonpoint source of pollution across the country as urban areas with populations over 100,000 conduct studies designed to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for their stormwater discharges. From 1991 through 1994, the City of Davenport, Iowa (fig. 1), and the U.S. Geological Survey cooperatively conducted a study designed to meet technical conditions of the permit application and to develop the criteria for ongoing monitoring during the term of the permit.

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USGS1994

Selected nutrients in stormwater runoff from Davenport, Iowa, 1992

Flow-weighted composite samples of stormwater runoff from areas of different land use in Davenport, Iowa, were collected in the summer and fall of 1992 and analyzed for selected nutrients. Annual constituent loads were estimated for the area drained by the Davenport storm-sewer network. In all cases, the regression-equation estimate of mean annual load is less than the estimate obtained by using the method of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The largest mean annual loads for total nitrite nitrogen, total nitrate nitrogen, total nitrite and nitrate nitrogen, total organic nitrogen, total ammonia and organic nitrogen, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus are associated with residential land, which covers 67.2 percent of the area drained. Using concentration data from this study, it is estimated that an average storm-producing runoff during the 7-day, 10-year low-flow discharge of the Mississippi River would contribute about 4 percent of the total ammonia and organic nitrogen load in the river. Precipitation-chemistry data indicate that substantial parts of the nitrate nitrogen and ammonia nitrogen contained in the stormwater runoff could be from precipitation.

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