Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2009DE163B

Physical Characterizations of Rapid Infiltration Basin Systems (RIBS) Used for Wastewater and Stormwater Disposal

Institute: Delaware
Year Established: 2009 Start Date: 2009-03-01 End Date: 2010-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $1,500 Total Non-Federal Funds: $3,000

Principal Investigators: Alan Andres, Jennalee Rufft

Project Summary: Infiltration facilities, such as beds, ponds, and basins, are increasingly being used to mitigate the impacts of wastewater and stormwater disposal on bodies of surface water. All to frequently, however, these facilities are adversely affected by problems that reduce hydraulic efficiency that require expensive maintenance or reconstruction. Hydraulic problems can also lead to inadequate treatment of dissolved or suspended material and release of contaminants to sensitive downflow receptors such as wells, streams, ponds, wetlands, etc. This effort is part of a larger University and State research project that is analyzing affects of treated sewage infiltration practices on soils, ground water, and surface water. This larger effort is multi-disciplinary and includes researchers from three UD colleges as well as the state regulatory agency. The objectives are this project are for the DWRC intern to gain practical knowledge and experience in the acquisition and management of subsurface hydraulic testing data and interpretation and analysis of hydraulic data in the context of assembling and running a simple infiltration model. The intern will prepare a brief report describing the project design and results