Shirley E. Clark, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE

Stormwater Management Research Group, Penn State Harrisburg

 Contact Information:

Phone: 717-948-6127

Fax: 717-948-6580

E-mail: Shirley E Clark

Filtration for Stormwater Treatment

Filtration has been suggested as a technology for treating stormwater pollution. Our research has shown the possibilities of using filters to treat stormwater with caveats.

First, filters without prior chemical treatment, are not capable of removing most pollutants down to non-detectable levels. There is a lower limit of ability because there is an insufficient concentration gradient to encourage many successful interactions between the media surface and the pollutants in water. Therefore, these filters work “best” at more polluted sites, e.g., critical source areas, where pollutant loadings are higher. They do not perform as well as polishing technologies after stormwater detention.

Second, stormwater filters differ from water and wastewater treatment filters in that they are typically not designed to be backwashed regularly. Stormwater runoff, however, contains  a sufficient amount of solids to rapidly reduce the flowrate in downflow filters. In order to increase the run time of stormwater filters, other configurations, such as upflow operation, can be used to ensure that the filter clogs within a limited amount of time.

The publications on this page describe work on both downflow and upflow filtration.

PUBLICATIONS (Abstracts available through the hyperlink, full reports available from the publisher if free):

 

Dissertation and Thesis:

 

Urban Stormwater Filtration: Optimization of Design Parameters and a Pilot-Scale Evaluation. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama. 430 pages. 2000.

 

Evaluation of Filtration Media for Stormwater Runoff Treatment. M.S.C.E. Thesis, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, 442 pages. 1996.

 

Peer-Reviewed Articles:

 

“Stormwater filter media pollutant retention under aerobic versus anaerobic conditions.” S.E. Clark and R. Pitt. Journal of Environmental Engineering. (Accepted September 11, 2008).

 

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles Under Review

 

“Solids removal in stormwater filters modeled using a power equation.” S.E. Clark and R. Pitt. Journal Environmental Engineering. (In review September 2008).

 

Book Chapters:

 

“Chapter 9: Upflow filtration for the treatment of stormwater at critical source areas.” R. Pitt, U. Khambhammettu, B. Andoh, S. Clark. In: Contemporary Modeling of Urban Water Systems, Monograph 15. Edited by W. James, E.A. McBean, R.E. Pitt, S.J. Wright). Computational Hydraulics, Guelph, Ontario. pp. 185 – 203. 2007.

 

“Chapter 7: Media filtration to remove solids and associated pollutants from stormwater runoff.” S.E. Clark, R. Pitt, P.D. Johnson, M. Pratap. In: Best Management Practices (BMP) Technology Symposium: Current and Future Directions. ASCE Press, Reston, VA. pp. 141-163. 2006.

 

“Filtration for metals removal from stormwater.” S.E. Clark, P. Johnson, R. Pitt, S. Gill, M. Pratap. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Urban Drainage, IWA, Copenhagen, Denmark, CD-ROM. 2005.

 

“Emerging Stormwater Controls for Critical Source Areas.” R. Pitt and S. Clark. In: Management of Wet-Weather Flow in the Watershed (Edited by Daniel Sullivan and Richard Field). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. Publication in 2002.

 

Research Reports:

 

Metals Removal Technologies for Urban Stormwater. Johnson, P.D., R. Pitt, S.R. Durrans, M. Urrutia, and S. Clark. Water Environment Research Foundation. WERF 97-IRM-2. ISBN: 1-94339-682-3. Alexandria, VA. 701 pgs. Oct. 2003.

 

Stormwater Runoff Treatment: Evaluation of Filtration Media. S. Clark and R. Pitt. EPA 600/R-00/010. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Water Supply and Water Resources Division, National Risk Management Laboratory. Cincinnati, Ohio. 405 pages. October 1999.

 

Stormwater Runoff Treatment at Critical Areas: The Multi-Chambered Treatment Train (MCTT). R. Pitt, B. Robertson, P. Barron, A. Ayyoubi, and S. Clark. EPA 600/R-99/017. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Water Supply and Water Resources Division, National Risk Management Laboratory. Cincinnati, Ohio. 505 pages. March 1999.

 

Published Proceedings and Other Publications:

 

“Runoff polishing by natural media filtration: Upflow vs. downflow.” M. Pratap, S.E. Clark, R. Pitt, U. Khambhammettu, C. Roenning, D. Treese, C.Y.S. Siu. 2007 Pennsylvania Stormwater Management Symposium, Villanova Urban Stormwater Partnership, Villanova, PA, October 17-18, 2007. CD-ROM. Poster.

 

“Stormwater polishing: Upflow vs. downflow filters.” M.R. Pratap; U. Khambhammettu, S.E. Clark, R. Pitt. World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2007. ASCE/EWRI, Tampa, FL, May 15 – 19, 2007. CD-ROM.

 

“Verification of the UpFlo Filter: An upflow filter for stormwater treatment at critical source areas.” L. Glennon, R. Pitt, S. Clark. StormCon, The North American Surface Water Quality Conference & Exposition. Denver, CO. July 24 – 27, 2006. CD-ROM

 

“Use of filtration systems for control of pollutants in stormwater runoff.” D. Woelkers, R. Pitt, S. Clark. StormCon, The North American Surface Water Quality Conference & Exposition. Denver, CO. July 24 – 27, 2006. CD-ROM.

 

“Performance of upflow filtration for treating stormwater.” U.C. Khambhammettu, R.E. Pitt, R. Andoh, S.E. Clark. World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. ASCE/EWRI Omaha, NE, May 2006. CD-ROM.

 

“Filtration for metals removal from stormwater.” S. E. Clark, P. Johnson, R. Pitt, S. Gill, M. Pratap. Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Urban Drainage. IWA, Copenhagen, Denmark, August 2005. CD-ROM. Presentation.

 

“Stormwater treatment using upflow filters.” World Water and Environmental Resources Congress. M. Pratap, U. Khambhammettu, S. Clark, and R. Pitt. ASCE/EWRI. Anchorage, Alaska. May 2005. (conference CD-ROM).

 

“WERF: Evaluation of upflow filtration for stormwater treatment at critical source areas.” M. Pratap, S. Clark, R. Pitt, and P. Johnson. 77th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exposition and Conference. New Orleans, LA. Oct 4 – 7, 2004. (conference CD-ROM). Presentation.

 

“High level treatment of stormwater heavy metals.” R. Pitt, S. Clark, P.D. Johnson, R. Morquecho, S. Gill, and M. Pratap. World Water and Environmental Resources Conference 2004, Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Salt Lake City, Utah. July 27 – August 1, 2004. (conference CD-ROM). Presentation.

 

“Treatability of stormwater heavy metals; or breaking the irreducible concentration barrier.” R. Pitt, S. Clark, P.D. Johnson, R. Morquecho, and D. Williamson. Watershed 2004, Water Environment Foundation. Dearborn, MI. July 11 – 14, 2004. (conference CD-ROM). Presentation.

 

2003 Pennsylvania Stormwater Management Symposium Presentation.

 

Industrial Waste Conference 2003 Presentation.

 

“Modeling of particulate removal in mixed media using a power equation.” R. Pitt, S. Clark and P. Brown. Water Environment Federation’s  Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, GA, October 14 – 17, 2001. Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. 2001. Presentation.

 

“WERF: Pollution retention by filter media under aerobic versus anaerobic conditions.” S. Clark, R. Pitt and P. Brown. Water Environment Federation’s Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, GA, October 14 – 17, 2001. Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. 2001.

 

“Effect of anaerobiosis on filter media pollutant retention.” S. Clark, R. Pitt, and P. Brown. In: Proceedings of the United Engineering Conference on Linking Stormwater BMP Designs and Performance to Receiving Water Impacts, August 19 – 24, 2001. American Society of Civil Engineers, 2002.

 

“BMP Filters: Upflow vs. Downflow.” S. Clark, R. Pitt, and A. Balakrishnan. In: Proceedings of the United Engineering Conference on Linking Stormwater BMP Designs and Performance to Receiving Water Impacts, August 19 – 24, 2001. American Society of Civil Engineers, 2002.

 

“Wastewater treatment using low-cost adsorbents and waste materials.” S. Clark, P. Brown, and R. Pitt. In: Proceedings of the 2000 WEF and Purdue University Industrial Wastes Technical Conference, St. Louis, MO, May 21 – 24, 2000. Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. 2000.

 

“Stormwater runoff filtration prior to groundwater recharge.” R. Pitt, S. Clark,and R. Field. Abstract In: American Water Resources Association’s 1998 Annual Conference on Water Resources, Point Clear, AL, November 15 – 19, 1998.

 

“Treatment by filtration of stormwater runoff prior to groundwater recharge.” S. Clark, R. Pitt, P. Brown, and R. Field. In: Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation’s 71st Annual Conference & Exposition, Orlando, FL, October 3 – 7, 1998. Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. 1998.

 

“Urban runoff filtration for critical source areas.” S. Clark, R. Pitt, and R. Field. In: Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation’s Specialty Conference on Advances in Urban Wet Weather Pollution Reduction, Cleveland, OH, June 28 – July 1, 1998. Water Environment Federation, Alexandria, VA. 1998. Presentation.

 

“Pollutant removal capacity of stormwater filtration media – Breakthrough tests.” (poster presentation) S. Clark, R. Pitt, J. Easton, O. Mirov, R. Field, and K. Parmer. Abstract In: Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation’s 70th Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, IL, October 18 – 22, 1997.

 

“Stormwater treatment using inlet devices, filter media, and filter fabrics.” (poster presentation) S. Clark, R. Pitt, and R. Field. In: Proceedings of the Engineering Foundation Conference: Stormwater NPDES Related Monitoring Needs. Edited by H.C. Torno. Engineering Foundation and ASCE. New York, NY. 1994. pp. 641 – 650.

 

 

This page summarizes the work performed by me and my students on stormwater filtration since 1994. A listing of relevant publications written by our group is found at the bottom of this page.