Effects of roof and rainwater characteristics on copper concentrations in roof runoff |
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Authors: | Gretchen K Bielmyer W Ray Arnold Joseph R Tomasso Jeff J Isely Stephen J Klaine |
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Institution: | (1) Faculty of Natural Science Institute for Biological Production System Section Biosystems and Horticultural Engineering, Leibniz University Hannover, Hellwiesen 3, 30900 Wedemark, Germany |
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Abstract: | Copper sheeting is a common roofing material used in many parts of the world. However, copper dissolved from roof sheeting
represents a source of copper ions to watersheds. Researchers have studied and recently developed a simple and efficient model
to predict copper runoff rates. Important input parameters include precipitation amount, rain pH, and roof angle. We hypothesized
that the length of a roof also positively correlates with copper concentration (thus, runoff rates) on the basis that runoff
concentrations should positively correlate with contact time between acidic rain and the copper sheet. In this study, a novel
system was designed to test and model the effects of roof length (length of roof from crown to the drip edge) on runoff copper
concentrations relative to rain pH and roof angle. The system consisted of a flat-bottom copper trough mounted on an apparatus
that allowed run length and slope to be varied. Water of known chemistry was trickled down the trough at a constant rate and
sampled at the bottom. Consistent with other studies, as pH of the synthetic rainwater decreased, runoff copper concentrations
increased. At all pH values tested, these results indicated that run length was more important in explaining variability in
copper concentrations than was the roof slope. The regression equation with log-transformed data (R
2 = 0.873) accounted for slightly more variability than the equation with untransformed data (R
2 = 0.834). In log-transformed data, roof angle was not significant in predicting copper concentrations. |
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