Assessment of trace metals leaching during rainfall events from building rooftops with different types of coverage - Case study

Abstract

Runoff water is an important medium transporting various types of pollution originating from the atmosphere and washed out from roofing materials. The study presents a quality assessment of runoff from different roofs in the context of trace metal concentrations. The analysed rooftops were covered with copper, tar paper and ceramic tile. The quality of the rain water collected at the same time satisfies the demands of the first grade of cleanliness according to (Journal of Laws, 2016 item1187). The highest content of copper was leached from the copper roof, containing 10.23 mg·dm-3. In the case of zinc, the highest concentration of 15.52 mg·dm-3 was present in the runoff from the roof covered with thermally bonded tar paper. The amount of trace metals in the ceramic roof runoff was the lowest and only for zinc slightly exceeded 1.47 mg·dm-3 - the value determined for II class of purity. In the paper, the different levels of heavy metals leaching from different roofing materials have been confirmed.