Volatile organic compounds in storm water from a parking lot

Journal of Environmental Engineering
By: , and 

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Abstract

A mass balance approach was used to determine the most important nonpoint source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in storm water from an asphalt parking lot without obvious point sources (e.g., gasoline stations). The parking lot surface and atmosphere are important nonpoint sources of VOCs, with each being important for different VOCs. The atmosphere is an important source of soluble, oxygenated VOCs (e.g., acetone), and the parking lot surface is an important source for the more hydrophobic VOCs (e.g., benzene). VOCs on the parking lot surface appear to be concentrated in oil and grease and organic material in urban particles (e.g., vehicle soot). Except in the case of spills, asphalt does not appear to be an important source of VOCs. The uptake isotherm of gaseous methyl tert-butyl ether on urban particles indicates a mechanism for dry deposition of VOCs from the atmosphere. This study demonstrated that a mass balance approach is a useful means of understanding non-point-source pollution, even for compounds such as VOCs, which are difficult to sample.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Volatile organic compounds in storm water from a parking lot
Series title Journal of Environmental Engineering
DOI 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2000)126:12(1137)
Volume 126
Issue 12
Year Published 2000
Language English
Publisher ASCE
Publisher location Reston, VA, United States
Contributing office(s) Minnesota Water Science Center
Description 7 p.
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Journal of Environmental Engineering
First page 1137
Last page 1143
Online Only (Y/N) N
Additional Online Files (Y/N) N
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