Urban stormwater disinfection, quality variability during storage and influence on the freshwater algae: Implications for reuse safety

Stormwater reuse is one of the most important ways to mitigate water resource shortage. However, urban stormwater contains many bacteria species, which threaten the reuse safety. Therefore, stormwater disinfection is highly needed. Although disinfection has been widely conducted in the drinking water and reclaimed water, it is rarely carried out for stormwater. This study collected the roof stormwater and undertook chlorination disinfection. Two typical bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) were selected in this study to investigate the disinfection efficiency. It is found that bacteria species present in the stormwater had an important influence on disinfection efficiency while the original stormwater quality did not show an obvious affect. However, when the disinfected stormwater was stored, the stormwater quality was highly variable during its storage process and the variability was affected by bacteria species. The S.aureus containing stormwater showed a high variability of quality and S.aureus significantly regrew. However, the E.coli containing stormwater quality had a relatively low variability and E.coli did not significantly regrew. Additionally, it is noted that after storage, the dissolved form of stormwater was more positive to the freshwater algae's growth while the particulate form (including bacteria and other particulate matters) was less. This implies that a further treatment such as filtration is needed before the stored stormwater is recharged into receiving waters in order to remove particulate forms. These research outcomes can provide useful insight to effective stormwater disinfection and ensure reuse safety.