Meltwater management is a runoff management system designed to deal with runoff caused by the melting of snow in colder climates. They were designed when it became apparent that using the Best management practice (BMP) for rainfall runoff was not working. Snow filtration is a system to deal with left-over

snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...

in an

environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that clai ...

way. Removing snow from roads is done to ensure

road safety Road traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to prevent road users from being killed or seriously injured. Typical road users include pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, vehicle passengers, horse riders, and passengers of on-road ...

. The conventional method is by removing the snow and emptying it into rivers. However, since salt is used to melt ice on the roads, the salt also enters the rivers with the dumped snow. This increases the salt content of the rivers which can have impacts on aquatic and marine ecosystems. The practice of removing snow from streets and off-loading it into rivers affects the aquatic ecosystems.

Method

In the Spring as snow melts, the salt utilized on roads as a deicer are left behind. This can be environmentally damaging as it creates a hypertonic environment for plants. The snow

runoff Runoff, run-off or RUNOFF may refer to: * RUNOFF, the first computer text-formatting program * Runoff or run-off, another name for bleed, printing that lies beyond the edges to which a printed sheet is trimmed * Runoff or run-off, a stock market ...

is collected and brought to a collection center. It is directed through an oil and grit separator which also monitors the consistency of pollutants in the runoff. The oil and grit separator causes

electrochemical Electrochemistry is the branch of physical chemistry concerned with the relationship between electrical potential difference, as a measurable and quantitative phenomenon, and identifiable chemical change, with the potential difference as an outco ...

and

biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

processes, which bind

heavy metals upright=1.2, Crystals of osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">lead.html" ;"title="osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead">osmium, a heavy metal nearly twice as dense as lead Heavy metals are generally defined as ...

and

nutrients A nutrient is a substance used by an organism to survive, grow, and reproduce. The requirement for dietary nutrient intake applies to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Nutrients can be incorporated into cells for metabolic purposes or excret ...

to the sediment by means of reduction-oxidation reactions. At the same time, this reduces the amount of

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

present in the runoff. The runoff then flows into a

catch basin A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from impervious surface ...

, where plants use the salt

ions An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...

(e.g. K⁺, P³⁻, N³⁻) for their growth. The runoff is further filtered by the plants, leaving only clean water to go back into

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

and

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

References

Sustainable technologies {{environment-stub