Dynamics of pollutant discharge in combined sewer systems during rain events: chance or determinism?

A large database of continuous flow and turbidity measurements cumulating data on hundreds of rain events and dry weather days from two sites in Paris (called Quais and Clichy) and one in Lyon (called Ecully) is presented. This database is used to characterize and compare the behaviour of the three sites at the inter-events scale. The analysis is probed through three various variables: total volumes and total suspended solids (TSS) masses and concentrations during both wet and dry weather periods in addition to the contributions of diverse-origin sources to event flow volume and TSS load values. The results obtained confirm the previous findings regarding the spatial consistency of TSS fluxes and concentrations between both sites in Paris having similar land uses. Moreover, masses and concentrations are proven to be correlated between Parisian sites in a way that implies the possibility of some deterministic processes being reproducible from one catchment to another for a particular rain event. The results also demonstrate the importance of the contribution of wastewater and sewer deposits to the total events' loads and show that such contributions are not specific to Paris sewer networks.