Water Quality Assessment of Submerged Tire-Derived Aggregate Fills

Abstract

For many of its intended civil engineering applications, tire-derived aggregate (TDA) comes into contact with water and may leach organic and inorganic compounds. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the rate that potential water quality contaminants leach from TDA as a function of time. A laboratory and field experiment were conducted to provide insight into both controlled and field settings. The laboratory experiment suggested that benzene, methyl isobutyl ketone (MIBK), cadmium, zinc, iron, manganese, total phosphate, and total suspended solids leach from TDA and dissolved oxygen is altered by TDA. A dramatic decrease in release rate over time was observed for all constituents under all water exposure conditions. The field experiment suggested that a TDA-soil system provides removal of many constituents from urban stormwater runoff, including acetone, cadmium, chemically oxidizable organic compounds, iron, lead, manganese, MIBK, oil and grease, phosphate, and zinc. The results suggest that TDA can be used as a water-saturated fill material without risking immediate or long-term degradation of water quality for receiving water bodies.