138-2 N and P in Runoff Water From Residential Landscapes in California.

See more from this Division: S11 Soils & Environmental Quality
See more from this Session: Water Quality in Urban Landscapes
Monday, November 1, 2010: 8:30 AM
Long Beach Convention Center, Room 103B, First Floor
Share |

Jay (Jianying) Gan, University of California, Riverside, CA, Svetlana Bondarenko, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, CA, Darren Haver, UC Cooperative Extension, Irvine, CA and Loren Oki, UC Davis, Davis, CA
Lawns and other planting covers are an important component of most urban landscapes. Use of N and P fertilizers around residential homes may cause contamination of runoff water by nitrate, phosphate and other N and P forms. This non-point source pollution may directly contribute to water quality impairment of urban surface streams and estuaries. To understand the dynamics and patterns of N and P loadings via urban runoff, we monitored levels of nitrate, phosphate, total-N and total-P, along with other water quality parameters, in runoff water from 8 neighborhoods in California for over two years. Four of the sampling sites were located in Sacramento County (Northern California), and 4 in Orange County (southern California). At each site, runoff water from 200-500 single-family homes was collected in a grab sample fashion at the storm drain outfall. Water samples were collected biweekly under dry weather conditions or immediately after a rain storm. Data were analyzed by considering spatial and temporal effects, including a monthly effect, as well as interactions with total suspended solids, total organic carbon, and sampling conditions (dry vs. storm).  This presentation will discuss the main findings of this study.
See more from this Division: S11 Soils & Environmental Quality
See more from this Session: Water Quality in Urban Landscapes