Stormwater Treatment
by Gary Minton, Ph.D., P.E.

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THE BOOK FOR THE PRACTICING ENGINEER AND SCIENTIST. First published in 2002, the only true textbook, it explains how stormwater treatment systems "work": the various physical, biological, and chemical processes that remove pollutants. Understanding these processes leads to more rationale and cost-effective decisions regarding: design criteria and their relationship to performance and performance goals, interpretation of performance claims, long-term performance, maintenance, and laboratory and field study procedures. Included are sizing procedures, key design elements, and maintenance practices to maximize performance and reliability. See the Table of Contents[TOC] Or excerpts from each chapter[Chapter Summary]

Why buy this book? This is not an academic book. It is written for the practicing professional. It is the only publication that fully explains pollutant removal processes(Unit Processes), their relationship to key design criteria, and modification of current design criteria to create more effective and most importantly more cost-effective treatment systems. The majority of our design criteria and sizing procedures were developed one to two decades ago, and have not generally kept pace with our rapidly increasing understanding of the relationship of design criteria to performance. The content of this book provides the foundation to develop more appropriate design criteria.

Find out:

- how you can reduce the size of a wet pond or wetland by 50% or more depending on your current method, without affecting performance

- bioretention is completely ineffective at removing nitrogen and phosphorus, and in fact can export these nutrients

- bioretention does not get 90% removal of metals as is commonly claimed

- to use life-cycle costing to find the most cost-effective system, taking both first and maintenance costs into consideration

- the key elements to a public maintenance program

- how so called vortex separators work and why only one of the products on the market is truly a vortex separator. Learn which one.

- climate affects the selection and sizing of treatment systems

- what are the lowest likely effluent concentrations that we can expect from treatment systems

- and much more

Now in its third edition the book currently has owners in 45 U.S. states, 7 provinces of Canada, and 20 countries. It has been widely praised by many owners [Testimonials], in particular that the book is comprehensive and very readable for both engineers and scientists. It has been purchased by professionals with consulting firms, manufacturers of stormwater products, and at all levels of government from cities and towns to federal and international agencies. The subject is thoroughly covered in over 650 pages of text, and more than 175 graphics, 200 tables, and 2700 references.

Biological, chemical, and engineering principles underlay our stormwater treatment technologies, such as wet ponds, swales, swirl settlers, bioretention, porous pavements, and filters.These principles derive from our knowledge and experience in not only stormwater treatment but also water and wastewater treatment engineering, chemical engineering, agricultural engineering, aquatic chemistry, soil science, and the biological sciences. The book presents these principles, exploring their relationship to design criteria, performance, and performance variability. The book is for engineers, scientists, and planners in consulting firms and government agencies who are looking for a thorough understanding of the mechanisms of pollutant removal, and the justification or lack of for particular design criteria. The author suggests that many current design criteria require reconsideration and modification.

3RD EDITION CHANGES

• 4 new chapters: gross pollutant removal, source control, advanced treatment, and maintenance
• Over 800 new references; now over 2,700 references total.
• Increase in total text by about 50 percent.
• About two dozen new tables and figures.
• Common perception of performance versus what has actually been observed in the field.
• A focus on meeting effluent numbers rather than percent removal, which is also discussed.
• Likely lowest median effluent concentrations for public domain treatment systems for a variety of pollutants.
• Update of proprietary treatment systems (Chapters 7, 10, 11, 12)
• Expansion of bioretention filter section from 4 to about 30 pages, limitations on N and P removal (Chapter 11).
• Updated discussion of porous pavement (Chapter 12).

Table of Contents [pdf]