2557

Monitoring of fecal bacteria and chemical parameter in river on Oita and Beppu
Mr.Krongtum Sankaewtong, Miss Nuntanat Worrakunpiset
Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University

National Institute of Technology, Oita Collage

1 June 31 July 2015
Introduction
Results and Discussion
Water contamination has been concerned as the world issue
for decades especially in industrial countries. And it is important resource for human
and its quality is a key to determine how well being of people who live around that
resource are.
In Japan, though there are several regulations and laws to prohibit the drainage
of the sewage from the sources but some of those still be discharged. One of the
most important source is from household which of course be the habitat along the
river bank. Most of the discharged from those unit will be conducted to the
wastewater treatment plant, but some are not. Even though the water treatment is
used as the first station for decreasing the contamination of the water before flows
to the river but not a hundred percent of the discharge can be treated. Monitoring
of the quality of contamination is playing a major role in this issue. The chemical
water parameters are set in order to examine the quality of water and control the
concentration of chemical substances not to exceed the level that can be affect to
human and surround environment. Beside, the microbial indicator is set to
determine the fecal contamination from the same sampling water.
This study aimed to investigate the concentration of chemical substances and the
level of fecal contamination in three main rivers in Oita prefecture which are Ohno
River and Oita River, under different distance from the mouth of river to each
sampling water.

Materials and Methods

The observed stations were chosen along the Ono River which flows pass through
Oita City, 6 samples were collected, located throughout the length and the area of
the river. Beside observed station along Ono River, this study also aims to compare
the contamination of water of River in Oita and Beppu city. Therefore the observed
points in Beppu were chosen, Asami, Haruki and Sakai rives.
The chemical water parameters were investigated by using Titration and Ion
Chromatography to measure the concentration of cation and anion. The result from
the chemical analysis will be shown in form of graphs. This study analyzed
enterococci, coliform, and E. coli in each water sample pH, electrical conductivity (EC),
and turbidity were also determined as major water parameters. E. faecium and E.
faecalis were identified by utilizing PCR. All the isolated Enterococcus strains were
identified by PCR. PCR products were separated by electrophoresis on an Agarosegel.
The amplified DNA bands were visualized after ethidium bromide staining using UV
light.
.

The concentrations of ion, except for HCO3-, are increase along the stream from upper
to lower stream in Ohno River due to effect of contamination from factories, fertilizer on
cultivation and household waste along the path from upstream to downstream and Oita
River has the same tendency as in Ohno River.
Ion concentrations level of water between Oita River and Ohno River are close except
for HCO3- concentration because Oita River has some effect from Yufuin and Nagayu hot
springs which cause higher concentration of HCO3- in sampling waters in Oita River than
that of Ohno River.

Fig.2: Effect of distance on the concentration of ion in sampling waters from rivers (a)
HCO3-concentration; (b) Si4+ concentration (c) Na+ concentration; (d) SO42- concentration
Sampling station

Otozu River

pH

6.95

Water temperature ()

21.2

EC (ms/m)

17.63

Turbidity
(degree, kaolin)

n/a

Shirataki-hashi

6.99

20.3

11.76

n/a

Asaji

7.34

19.3

9.36

n/a

Kamio cho

7.39

19.4

11.73

n/a

Harajiri no taki

Nakashima Koen

Haruki River

Sakai River

Asami River

7.72

7.28

8.85

8.098

8.588

18.7

17.2

24.9

23.9

23.5

10.15

10.11

108.3

58.5

24.87

n/a

n/a

Sampling
station

Enterococci (CFU 10 mL-1)

Coliform

E. Coli (MPN 10 mL-1)

MeanSD

Mean

Mean

Otozu River

1.59102 31.23

7.77102

12

Shiratakihashi

1.66102 20.51

7.34102

Asaji

2.67102 37.81

5.51102

31

Kamio cho

2.13102 22.48

5.69102

20

Harajiri no
taki

2.27102 33.69

9.51102

15

Nakashima
Koen

1.5102 8.62

5.05102

Haruki River

4.79102 11.52

n/a

19

Sakai River

78.3314.19

n/a

92

Asami River

4.24102 4.58

n/a

47

2.596

1.466

20.015

Table 1: The fecal bacterial counts and chemical water parameters

Fig. 3: The band appearance from
UV amplification
Up-left: Asami River, E. faecium
Down-left: Asami River, E. faecalis
Up-right: Sakai River, E. faecalis
Down-right: Sakai River, E. faecium

Conclusions
Fig. 1: Map of the survey points in two rivers.

Ion concentrations of Ohno River and Oita River are increase along the stream from
upper to lower stream in due to effect of contamination along the path from upstream to
downstream. Ion concentrations level of water from both rivers are close except for HCO3concentration because the effect of hot springs in Oita river.
HCO3- and Si4+ concentrations in Ohno River are constant at the downstream and
increase at upstream due to the effect of cold spring water at upstream survey points. The
concentration of Na+ and SO42- in the downstream of both rivers are more than upstream
because of the contamination of sewage at downstream water.
Water contamination level of Ono River compared with those of Beppu city is lesser.
The Beppus rivers show the higher number of fecal bacterial contamination except the
result from Sakai River which can be suggested that the Sakai River has more treatment
than the others in the city area.
In compliance with the result from PCR that shows the higher in contamination from
both Enterococcus species, E. faecalis and E. faecium in Asami River than the Sakai.