Pollutant characteristics of road deposited sediments collected by road sweeping

Road deposited sediments (RDS) swept from highways in South Korea were characterized to quantitatively evaluate the reduction in non-point source pollutants by sweeping. The swept RDS consisted primarily of sand (63 μm to 2 mm) particles (80.34 ± 8.33% of total weight) highly contaminated by organics, nutrients and heavy metals. The average concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), volatile solids (VS), total nitrogen (T-N), and total phosphorus (T-P) were 20.17 ± 9.13, 1.04 ± 0.62, 39.92 ± 16.55, 1.99 ± 0.96, and 0.54 ± 0.19 g kg(-1) (±one standard deviation), respectively, for 63 μm to 2 mm RDS. The concentrations of the pollutants were high for RDS smaller than 63 μm, but most of the mass was associated with the 63 μm to 2 mm RDS. The results suggest that the pollutants associated with RDS swept from highways originated mainly from engine wear, exhaust emissions, and tire wear. These results were different from the RDS on roads in residential and commercial areas, where natural particles and brake wear contribute significantly to RDS. In addition, the reductions in TOC, BOD, VS, T-N, T-P, Cu, Pb, Zn, Fe, and As based on the swept RDS measurements were calculated to be 3,355.3, 175.1, 6,621.4, 323.0, 88.3, 30.3, 13.7, 1.0, 303.4, 11,198.7, and 0.4 g km(-1), respectively.