Study of retention-treatment basins in highways: case study of A24 (northern Portugal)

Abstract

In runoff water from highways are diluted several pollutants, that can affect groundwater resources, that depend on the traffic, as well as, on the automobile wear, type of road, infrastructure installed and waterproofing area. These discharges have impacts on the environment. To mitigate such impacts usually there are used retention/treatment basins. In this paper there was analyzed runoff water quality and the efficiency of five basins located in a highway in northern Portugal, in a sensitive area, where are explored mineral waters. It was verified that the results are according with Portuguese legislation in terms of limits of discharge. The treatment efficiency of theses basins is good. The obtained results from the previous analyses were compared with others case studies with different traffic volume and different precipitation patterns.