Density, Salinity, and Entry Depths of Municipal Wastewater in an Urban Lake.
The depths of entry of municipal wastewater into receiving lakes importantly affects associated impacts on water quality. The plunging behavior of two negatively buoyant inflows that carry municipal waste, an urban tributary and an effluent discharge, in Onondaga Lake, NY, is characterized and quantified based on an integrated program of monitoring, density calculations, and modeling. In-lake signatures of plunging from the two inflows are differentiated according to constituents in which each is enriched. Under common contemporary conditions, the summer averages of the fraction of the urban stream and effluent discharge inflows plunging to stratified depths is predicted, with a calibrated hydrodynamic model, to be approximately 0.7 and 0.35, respectively. Recent short-term increases in salinity levels from construction site dewatering caused greater plunging of the effluent discharge and interfered with normal complete fall turnover in the lake.
Upstate Freshwater Institute, P.O. Box 506, Syracuse, N.Y., 13214, USA.
David A
DA
Matthews
Susan M
SM
O'Donnell
Steven W
SW
Effler
Emmet M
EM
Owens
Craig A
CA
Hurteau
Anthony R
AR
Prestigiacomo
D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D060106:Lakes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D054712:Salinity; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry*
D062065:Wastewater; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical