Managing Stormwater by Accident: A Conceptual Study

Stormwater-driven road salt is a chronic and acute issue for streams in cold, urban environments. One promising approach reducing the impact of contamination adjacent aquifers to allow “accidental wetlands” flourish areas. These wetlands form naturally as byproduct human activities. In this study, we quantified ability an accidental wetland northwestern North Carolina, USA, reduce timing peak concentration stream. Monitoring suggests that flow transport processes through concentrations delay their arrival at We expand these findings with numerical simulations model multiple meltwater summer storm event scenarios. The output demonstrates small systems can salinities by 94% saltwater pulses 45 days. Our indicate improve stream water quality they may also temperatures during temperature surges streams. Furthermore, because find own niche, be more effective than some intentionally constructed wetlands, provide opportunities explore managing stormwater letting nature take its course.