Development of an autonomous flow-proportional water sampler for the estimation of pollutant loads in urban runoff

Implementation of an extensive urban runoff monitoring program, targeting the quantification of heavy metal and organic micropollutant loads, necessitated the development of an autonomous water sampler. The design requirements for the device were to fulfill flow-proportional continuous composite sampling of urban runoff events in a widely customizable, relatively inexpensive, and simple way. In this paper, we introduce the concept along with the experiences gained from the first several months of field tests at seven pilot areas in Hungary that represent a wide range of urban environments. During the test period, prototype samplers were placed in natural (urban) streams as well as stormwater drainage pipes, resulting in a total of 97 automatic composite runoff samples. At two sites, an additional 28 manual grab samples were collected to represent time series from five distinct runoff events. Sampling efficiency was checked by comparing collected volumes with the theoretical ones (derived from pump mileage data). Ranges and ratios of concentrations measured from composite and grab samples were graphically interpreted in order to evaluate their representativeness. It has been shown that the concept is suitable for conducting cost-effective urban runoff characterization surveys targeting inter-event variability.