Quality and quantity monitoring of five rainwater tanks in Western Sydney, Australia

M. Van Der Sterren, A. Rahman, G. R. Dennis

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    38 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Rainwater tanks are a fundamental component of integrated water cycle management, but the quality of harvested water is little understood and is potentially affected by many factors such as roofing material, site temperature, frequency of tank use, and surrounding land use. There has been limited study of the first flush, overflow water and harvested water quality from rainwater tanks in Australia. This paper presents the water quality results of a yearlong data collection and analysis study involving five rainwater tanks located in Western Sydney, Australia. The results show that tank water quality was impacted by the construction materials used to fabricate both the tanks and roofs. Furthermore, the overflow and first flush water quality were found to be of a lower standard than the tank samples, with implications for the cleaning of the first flush device and overflow diversion. Finally, the issues identified with the maintenance of the tanks are highlighted and discussed.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)332-340
    Number of pages9
    JournalJournal of Environmental Engineering
    Volume139
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Keywords

    • Western Sydney (N.S.W.)
    • rainwater
    • tanks
    • water harvesting
    • water quality
    • water-storage

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