Nutrients and Metals in Urban Stormwater Runoff: Testing the Efficacy of a Natural Wetland.

Stormwater management has become an important aspect of ensuring long-term water quality within a variety of natural systems in Florida and elsewhere.  In particular, one of the significant determinations made by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is that wetlands in urban areas can be dramatically altered by uncontrolled stormwater runoff resulting from natural drainage or direct discharge to wetland systems. There is a lack of research on mass balance data (inputs and outputs of water and contaminants) for wetlands that are used to treat stormwater runoff. We report data collected during 2013 wet season (June-September). We employed ISCO water samplers to collect water leaving a natural wetland (area: 1.2 hectare) that receives stormwater runoff from a corporate business park (drainage basin area: 6.2 hectare) in Tampa, Florida. Sediment and vegetation transact samples were collected from wetland in May 2013. Samples were analyzed for nutrients and trace metals. This presentation will discuss our ongoing research on urban stormwater runoff in study wetland.