Contribution of different sources to the hydrocarbon pollution during a rain event at the scale of an experimental catchment in Paris centre

Experiments performed on the “Marais” catchment, in central Paris, aimed to follow the quality of wet weather flows, from the entry up to the exit of a combined sewer network. Aliphatic (TAH) and polycyclic aromatic (PAH) hydrocarbon concentrations were measured for a significant number of rain events in roof, yard and street runoffs, as well as in wastewater at the catchment outlet. PAHs represented less than 0.05% of the total hydrocarbon contents in the “Marais” catchment whatever the sample location. The concentrations were in the 300?–?800?µg?l-1 and <1?–?200?ng?l-1 ranges for TAHs and PAHs, respectively. Mass balances, at catchment scale, were calculated over nine rain events in order to evaluate the contribution of three different sources: runoff, the wastewater and the sewer deposit erosion to the total wet weather pollution (WWP) load at the catchment outlet. Our results showed that the contributions were 48, 22 and 34% for TAHs and 75, 0 and 25% for PAHs for the sewer deposit erosion, the wastewater and the runoff, respectively. Our result is of interest for WWP management since an important abatement of combined sewer overflow (CSO) pollution might be reached through the reduction of in-sewer pollution stocks during dry weather, increasing the efficiency of wastewater treatment plants during storms.

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