Distributed, Unattended Storm Water Discharge Monitoring

Many military installations and Department of Defense (DoD) contractors are subject to recently promulgated regulations that require storm water flow metering and collection of both grab samples (in response to a rainfall event of a specified intensity) and flow-weighted composite samples. Such sampling is required prior to preparation of storm water quality management plans and will be required on an annual basis to document compliance with those plans. This project will develop and test a working model of a novel system for distributed, unattended storm water discharge monitoring that is capable of accurate metering and sampling of storm water discharges without on-site calibration of the metering site. The system will be comprised of a family of primary flow metering elements (flow tubes) and normally-off, low-power sensors that can be configured and interrogated over a wireless communication channel by a PC hosting user-friendly Windows(tm) -compatible software. The system will be designed to be compatible with and actuate distributed, unattended rain gauges and automatic samplers and to provide a well-mixed flow stream from which representative grab and composite samples can be obtained. Anticipated Benefits/Potential Applications - Phase I research will investigate the technical feasibility of a system for distributed, unattended monitoring of storm water discharges. If feasible, such a system will find commercial application by at least 270,000 industrial and municipal storm water dischargers. A major U.S. manufacturer estimated the U.S. market for such systems at $136 million by 1995.