Ecotoxicological effects of highway and tunnel wash water runoff Økotoksikologiske effekter av vegavrenning og tunnelvaskevann

Summary

In Norway, the traffic loadings have shown a substantial increase during the last decades. From 1948 to 2008 the transportation load has increased from 2.5 to 60.6 million passenger km. Hence, the ever increasing traffic has without doubt a significant negative effect on the environment. For example, highway runoffs typically contain a cocktail of both organic and inorganic contaminants being able to cause detrimental effects on the aquatic ecosystem. The present thesis, which is part of the Norwegian Public Roads Administrations ongoing work with the European Water Framework Directive, has addressed questions related to ecotoxicological effects of highway runoff. In addition, manmade runoff from tunnel wash maintenance, being far less described in the scientific literature compared to natural occurring runoffs, was included. Hence, exposure characteristics (e.g. source characterisation), environmental impacts (fish toxicity) and mitigation strategies (sedimentation ponds) were essential aspects in the present thesis.