Investigation of the Best Practices for the Reduction, Reuse, and Recycling of Vehicle Wash Water for NYSDOT

Date and Time: Tuesday, May 9, 2023: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Keck 100

 

Lead Presenter:  Xinwei Mao, 
Affiliation:  Stony Brook University
Social Media Handle:  @XinweiMao1

Lead Presenter Biography

Dr. Xinwei Mao (PI) is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering Department at SBU, and an essential faculty collaborator with the New York State Center for Clean Water Technology. Dr. Mao received her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from University of California at Berkeley in 2015. She also holds an M.S. in Environmental and Water process Engineering in Johns Hopkins University. She is an expert in wastewater treatment technologies and groundwater bioremediation. Mao’s main research focus is nutrients (N and P) removal and recovery from wastewater, and application of natural-based materials as the water purification media for contaminants removal. 

Co-Authors

Presentation Description 

Frequent application of de-icing reagents and the following vehicle washing practice generate large quantities of wash water that contain elevated levels of salts, and other contaminants. NYSDOT faces the challenge of improving environmental compliance and achieving cost-effectiveness within existing technologies and facilities. To understand the contaminant levels in the vehicle wash water and their impact to the environment, an analysis of DOT facilities throughout NYS has been completed. we collected vehicle wash water samples from 20 DOT vehicle maintenance sites to evaluate the wash water quality. pH, electron conductivity, total suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, chloride, and heavy metals were analyzed following standard methods. We hypothesized that (i) the contaminants levels are significantly higher from these facilities during the snow and ice season; and (ii) the concentrations of pollutants in the vehicle wash water are time variable, the first flush contains the highest salt concentration. The current baseline has been established comprising data collected during spring/summer 2019. The typical range found for pH was 6.1 - 8.6, while a huge range of variation of electric conductivity (0.1 - 241mS/cm), total suspended solids (TSS) (0 - 4680 mg/L), COD (10 - 2800 mg/L), and chloride (1 - 1450 mg/L) was observed. From the current data analysis, samples collected from winters 2019 and 2020 showed general trends of declining levels of pH and an increasing TSS, COD, and chloride levels. This information will provide us an in-depth view into key points of pollution sourced from winter vehicle maintenance materials.

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