SUDS: Environmental remediation applied to urban drainage

The few strategies used to remediate polluted urban waters have focused on reducing gross pollutant loads with a view to improving the aesthetics of streams and receiving rivers. However, many researchers have sought to evaluate the efficiency of percolating beds, operating by gravity, in removing contaminants from urban rainwater, valuing the short time for treatment and low maintenance. The various percolating beds tested proved to be effective in removing pollutants found in collected urban runoff, particularly metals. Notably, the composition of the prototypes included vermiculite, a clay mineral that demonstrated superior results compared to those made solely from sand, justifying its adoption. In this way, new devices based in this principle, could contribute to the implementation of water requalification actions in small, highly urbanized river watersheds dominated by diffuse contamination sources, with the implementation of treatment systems at the end of the drainage networks.