Sediments settled in stormwater sewer systems: assessment of possible uses through quality analysis

The research presented herein establishes possible auses of settled sediments in stormwater sewer systems. For this project, an urban catchment in Puente Aranda, part of Bogota, Colombia, was used as a case study. Physical and chemical characteristics were obtained for sediments collected at different sampling points between February, 2015 and April, 2015. Multivariate and non-parametric statistical analyses were performed on these data (i.e. PCA, Kruskal-Wallis, Wilcoxon). Results showed sediment quality to vary as a function of sampling location and soil use. With regard to possible sediment uses, some sediments were suitable for the production of Portland cement or pozzolanas (for the latter, CaCO3 was added in order to increase the solid’s calcium oxide). Ultimately, the data presented in this paper lead to the conclusion that further, more-detailed analysis must be carried out to determine sediment use for agricultural (e.g. fertilizer) or construction purposes.