Water Quality:: Physical, Chemical and Biological Parameters
Water Quality:: Physical, Chemical and Biological Parameters
Water Quality:: Physical, Chemical and Biological Parameters
1. Turbidity:
Suspended particles in water tend to scatter and absorb light rays making
it appear murky or turbid, this effect is called turbidity. Clay, silt, tiny
fragments of organic matter and microscopic organisms are some of the
substances that cause turbidity.
Turbidity can be accounted to human activities and pollution.
2. Temperature:
The flora and fauna in waterbodies can only flourish under certain
conditions of temperature. Most species can adopt to moderate
changes in temperature. Generally, a change in temperature of about
5C can significantly alter the balance and health of an aquatic
environment.
An increase in temperature causes more harm than drop in temperature
of waterbodies and hence discharge from power plants are harmful to
natural waterbodies.
This occurs as the solubility of oxygen in water decreases with increase of
temperature. Organisms thriving on dissolved oxygen are directly
affected (their metabolism rates are also increased due to increased
temperature, thus requiring more oxygen).
Initially at time t=0, BOD is also zero. As time passes BOD value rises and
ultimately BODL is achieved where all the organic content is
decomposed.
Derivation :
The rate at which organics are utilized by microorganisms is dependent
on the amount of organics present in water i.e.
dLt
kLt
dt
Where,
Lt = Oxygen equivalent of the organics at time t (in mg/L)
k = Reaction constant (in d-1)
dLt
kdt
Lt
Lt
dLt
L Lt k 0 dt
0
Lt
ln
kt
L0
Lt L0e
k t
yt L0 Lt
yt L0 L0ekt
yt L0 (1 ekt )
Where yt represents BODt of the water.
It is generally seen that 2/3rd of the BODL is usually exerted in the first 5
days of decomposition. For practical purposes 5 day BOD or BOD5 is
used. Thus BOD5 is an indicator of the amount of oxygen used up by
microorganism in 5 days at a given temperature (ideally 20 C).
Very clean waterbodies have BOD5 of 1 mg/L due to presence of
organic material like leaves and animal waste.
A waterbody having BOD5 of 10 mg/L indicates presence of sewage
pollution.
Where,
DO0 = initial DO at t=0
DO5 = DO after 5 days
V = Volume of sample, mL
Q. A 6 mL sample of sewage was collected from an urban area and
diluted to 300 mL using distilled water. The diluted solution was put in a
BOD bottle and the DO after 5 days was found to be 0.8 mg/L.
The initial DO was 12.5 mg/L. Calculate the ultimate BOD of the
sewage.
iii. Nitrification
With time the BOD curve approaches the ultimate BOD level and gets
saturated, this BOD level is also known as the ultimate carbonaceous
BOD because the microorganism primarily thrive on carbon based
organic material present in water.
v. Solids
Solids occur in water either in solution or suspension. These can be
distinguished by passing a water sample through a glass fiber filter. By
definition, suspended particles are retained at the top of the filter,
whereas the dissolved particles pass through the filter with the water.
TSS can be computed using the same equation as used for calculating
TDS.
Settleable solids are coarser fraction of suspended solids that readily
settle due to gravity. Settleable solids are routinely tested for in
wastewater treatment plants.
Volatile solids are organic substances that are inflammatory in nature
(can be burned in a furnace at around 550C). The concentration of
volatile solids indicate at the organic load of biological treatment units.
A. Microorganisms
These organisms play an important role in maintaining the balance of
an aquatic ecosystem. Most microorganisms are beneficial and act as
decomposers in the food chain.
The most common microorganism present in waterbodies are bacteria,
algae, protozoa, and viruses.
i. Bacteria
There are two types of bacteria depending on
their metabolism mechanism aerobic and
anaerobic. These are essentially single celled
plants which decompose organic or inorganic
materials for food.
Bacteria can also be classified based on the type
of food they consume autotrophic (ones that
depend on inorganic compounds, e.g. nitrifying
bacteria) and heterotrophic (ones that depend
on complex organic substances, e.g. coliform)
Bacteria are typically around 2 m in size and
occur in three basic shapes rod shaped
(bacillus), spherical (coccus) and spiral shaped
(spirellus).
ii. Algae
These are microscopic plants which have
photosynthetic pigments. They are autotrophic
organisms that thrive on inorganic matter. It
converts inorganic matter to organic form by
photosynthesis.
Free floating algae are also known as
phytoplankton (over 90% atmospheric oxygen is
created by salt water or marine phytoplankton
using photosynthesis)
iii. Protozoa
They are single celled, simplest of animal species
and consume bacteria, algae or organic matter
for food. They in turn serve as food for higher
animals. They are part of natural waterbodies
and are of importance in biological wastewater
treatment.
Amoeba is a common protozoa. Many types of
protozoa are harmful for human health and can
cause intestinal disease (Entamoeba histolytica).
iv. Viruses
They are extremely small pathogens that can
pass through most filters designed for bacteria.
They are incapable of independent metabolism
or reproduction (debate of their being inanimate
objects is prevalent). They invade host cells to
derive nutrition and also reproduce.
They cause host of diseases like chicken pox,
rabies,
yellow
fever,
polio,
influenza,
gastroenteritis, common cold etc.
B. Indicator organisms
One of the most important attribute of good
quality water is that it should be devoid of any
pathogen or disease causing organisms
bacteria, viruses, algae, protozoa or parasitic
worms
Surface waterbodies can be infected with such
pathogens if exposed to sewage.
B. Indicator organisms
A group of bacteria known as coliforms (E. coli) are a very good
indicator of pollution of water due to sewage.
These bacteria are not pathogenic in nature and are present in human
intestinal tracts, and pass out along with body waste.
A test for total coliforms (all strains of coliform available in nature) is
conducted during water treatment, presence of fecal coliform (present
in the intestine of warm blooded animals) confirms contamination due to
sewage.