PUBLICATIONS

• Publications by topic
  • Groundwater
  • Surface Water
  • Water Quality
  • Water Use

• Publications by date
  • Recent publications

Annual Water Data Report

USGS Publications Warehouse

USGS IN YOUR STATE

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

Metals and organic compounds in stormwater--Charlotte, North Carolina, 1993-98

Abstract - North Carolina Water Resources: The Year of the Hurricanes
By Jerad D. Bales and J. Curtis Weaver

Abstract

Most of the streams in Charlotte either partially support or do not support their designated uses. Most of the use impairment is caused by runoff from developed urban areas or from construction sites in developing areas.

During 1993-98, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, collected and interpreted data from eight small urban streams in the Charlotte area in order to characterize urban stormwater quantity and quality from selected land uses. Six of the basins were relatively small (0.02 mi2 to 0.27 mi2 drainage areas) and land use in each basin was relatively homogeneous. Streams from two larger (2.35 mi2 and 2.67 mi2) mixed land use basins also were sampled.

A total of about 40 individual stormwater samples from each site were analyzed for 13 metals. Arsenic was detected at all sites, but the State ambient water-quality standard was exceeded only in the heavy industrial and developing basins. Thirty percent of the samples from the developing basin had nickel concentrations in excess of the ambient water-quality standard. Chromium, copper, lead, and zinc occurred at all sites in concentrations that exceeded North Carolina water-quality standards. Median concentrations of these four metals in samples from the developing basin were typically double the median concentrations from the other basins. Silver, cyanide, beryllium, cadmium, and mercury were seldom detected or were detected in low concentrations. Loadings of metals in wet deposition, estimated from weekly measurements of metal concentrations in precipitation, suggest that atmospheric deposition may also be significant source of some metals, including chromium copper, lead, and zinc, in Charlotte stormwater.

Stormwater samples were analyzed for 121 organic pesticide compounds and 57 volatile organic compounds. Forty-five organic compounds and 7 volatile organic compounds were detected. Fifteen or more compounds were detected at all sites except sites in the mixed land use basins. Atrazine, carbaryl, and metolachlor were detected at all sites, with detection frequencies of 90 percent, 60 percent, and 60 percent, respectively. Diazinon and malathion were detected in samples from seven sites, and methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, alachlor, and 2, 4-D were detected at four or more sites. The high-density residential, medium-density residential, and developing basins had the greatest numbers of detections of organic compounds.