Water Pollution

Prof. A. K. Majumder
Department of Mining
Engineering

Water: Resources and

Pollution

"Water will be more important than oil this century.

- Former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Gali

Why is Water Important?

Necessary for all life to exist.
Next to antibiotics, single biggest
increase in human life span is due to
having access to clean water.
Diseases/toxins transmitted by
contaminated water:
Intestinal disease (cholera/dysentery)
Arsenic poisoning
Mercury poisoning
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Hydrologic Cycle

The water on earth is continually recycled.

The
hydrologic cycle describes
this
circulation:
1. Water evaporates from wet land, lakes, or
oceans and transpires from plants as they
dry up.
2. Enters the atmosphere, which is much colder,
condenses and falls as precipitation.
3. Moves underground by infiltration or runs
off into rivers, lakes, or the ocean.
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Earths Water Budget

All water

Fresh water

Readily accessible fresh water

Groundwater
0.592%

Oceans and
saline lakes
97.4%

Fresh water
2.6%

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0.014%
Ice caps
and glaciers
1.984%

Biota
0.0001%

Lakes
0.007%
Soil
moisture
0.005%

Rivers
0.0001%

Atmospheric
water vapor
0.001%

Quantities of Water Used

Water use has been increasing twice as fast
as population growth over past century.
Worldwide, agriculture claims about 70% of total
water withdrawal.
In many developing countries, agricultural water use
is extremely inefficient and highly consumptive.

Worldwide, industry accounts for about 25% of

all water use.
Cooling water for power plants is single largest
industrial use.

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Water Withdrawal

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FRESHWATER SHORTAGES
Areas that consume more water than
typically falls as precipitation are
considered to have water stress.
Currently, 45 countries cannot meet
the
minimum
essential
water
requirements of their citizens.
Will increase to 60 countries by 2050.

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How Can We Increase Water

Supplies?
Towing
Icebergs - Cost
Desalination
Removal of salt from ocean water
Requires a high input of energy
Dams, Reservoirs, and canals can be
constructed to make the water supply more
consistent or divert water to dry areas.
This could result in the displacement of
people, flooding of ecosystems.
Evaporation rates increase as water is
slowed.
Any dissolved nutrients present in the
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Drinking water standards (EPA)

Contaminant
Aluminum
Chloride
Color
Copper
Corrosivity
Fluoride
Foaming Agents
Iron
Manganese
Odor
pH
Silver
Sulfate
Total Dissolved Solids
Zinc
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Standard
0.05 to 0.2 mg/L
250 mg/L
15 (color units)
1.0 mg/L
noncorrosive
2.0 mg/L
0.5 mg/L
0.3 mg/L
0.05 mg/L
3 threshold odor number
6.5-8.5
0.10 mg/L
250 mg/L
500 mg/L
5 mg/L
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Pollution
Pollution

the

presence

of

substance

in

the

environment that, because of its chemical composition

or

quantity,

prevents

the

functioning

of

natural

processes and produces undesirable environmental and

health effects- EPA definition printed in your textbook.
Pollution can be further subdivided into two sub-classes
based on the source:
Point

source

discharges

of

factories, sewage, industry, etc..

substances

from

The source is easy

to identify, and thus regulation of point source

pollutants is manageable.

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Point Source of Polluted

Water from a Slaughter
House

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Non-Point source = the sources of this

type of pollution is very difficult to
identify.

Non-point pollution (NPS)

often originates from agricultural and

urban runoff, rainfall and snowmelt,
storm-water

drainage,

atmospheric deposition.

and

Because the

source regions are unidentifiable, NPS

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are extremely difficult to manage.

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Nonpoint Sediment from

Unprotected Farmland Flows into
Streams

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Point Source and Non Point Source

Pollutants

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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
The various types of water pollutants can be
classified in to following major categories:
Organic pollutants,
Pathogens,
Nutrients and agriculture runoff,
Suspended solids and sediments,
Inorganic pollutants (salts and metals),
Thermal Pollution
Radioactive pollutants.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
1)

ORGANIC POLLUTANTS:
a)Oxygen Demanding wastes
-

The wastewaters such as, domestic and municipal sewage,

wastewaters from food processing industries, canning
industries, slaughter houses, paper and pulp mills, tanneries,
etc., have considerable concentration of biodegradable
organic compounds either in suspended, colloidal or dissolved
form.

These wastes undergo degradation and decomposition by

bacterial activity.
The dissolved oxygen available in the water body will be
consumed for aerobic oxidation of organic matter present in
the wastewater.
Hence, depletion of the DO will be a serious problem
adversely affecting aquatic life, if the DO falls below 4.0 mg/L.
This decrease of DO is an index of pollution.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
b) Synthetic Organic Compounds
Synthetic organic compounds are also likely to enter the
ecosystem through various manmade activities such as
production of these compounds, spillage during transportation,
and their uses in different applications.
These include synthetic pesticides, synthetic
detergents, food additives, pharmaceuticals,
insecticides, paints, synthetic fibers, plastics, solvents
and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Most of these compounds are toxic and biorefractory
organics i.e., they are resistant to microbial degradation.
Even concentration of some of these in traces may make water
unfit for different uses.
The detergents can form foams and volatile substances may
cause explosion in sewers.
Some of these compounds are exceedingly persistent and their
stability to chemical reagents is also high.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
c) Oil
Oil is a natural product which results from the plant remains fossilized
over millions of years, under marine conditions. It is a complex mixture
of hydrocarbons and degradable under bacterial action.
The biodegradation rate is different for different oils, tars being one of
the slowest.
Oil enters in to water through oil spills, leak from oil pipes, and
wastewater from production and refineries.
Being lighter than water it spreads over the surface of water, separating
the contact of water with air, hence resulting in reduction of DO.
This pollutant is also responsible for endangering water birds and
coastal plants due to coating of oils and adversely affecting the normal
activities.
It also results in reduction of light transmission through surface waters,
thereby reducing the photosynthetic activity of the aquatic plants.
Oil includes polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), some of which are
known to be carcinogenic.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
2) PATHOGENS
The pathogenic microorganisms enter in to water
body through sewage discharge as a major source or
through
the
wastewater
from
industries
like
slaughterhouses.
Viruses and bacteria can cause water borne diseases,
such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery, polio and
infectious hepatitis in human.

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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
3) NUTRIENTS
The agriculture run-off, wastewater from fertilizer industry and
sewage contains substantial concentration of nutrients like
nitrogen and phosphorous.
These wastewater supply nutrients to the plants and may
stimulate the growth of algae and other aquatic weeds in
receiving waters.
Thus, the value of the water body is degraded.
In long run, water body reduces DO, leads to eutrophication and
ends up as a dead pool of water.
People swimming in eutrophic waters containing blue-green algae
can have skin and eye irritation, gastroenteritis and vomiting.
High nitrogen levels in the water supply, causes a potential risk,
especially to infants under six months.
This is when the
methaemoglobin results in a decrease in the oxygen carrying
capacity of the blood as nitrate ions in the blood readily oxidize
ferrous ions in the hemoglobin.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
4) SUSPENDED SOLIDS AND SEDIMENTS
These comprise of silt, sand and minerals eroded from land.
These appear in the water through the surface runoff during rainy
season and through municipal sewers.
This can lead to the siltation, reduces storage capacities of
reservoirs.
Presence of suspended solids can block the sunlight penetration in
the water, which is required for the photosynthesis by bottom
vegetation.
Deposition of the solids in the quiescent stretches of the stream or
ocean bottom can impair the normal aquatic life and affect the
diversity of the aquatic ecosystem.
If the deposited solids are organic in nature, they will undergo
decomposition leading to development of anaerobic conditions.
Finer suspended solids such as silt and coal dust may injure the
gills of fishes and cause asphyxiation.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
5) INORGANIC POLLUTANTS
Apart from the organic matter discharged in the water body
through sewage and industrial wastes, high concentration of
heavy metals and other inorganic pollutants contaminate the
water.
These compounds are non-biodegradable and persist in the
environment.
These pollutants include mineral acids, inorganic salts, trace
elements, metals, metals compounds, complexes of metals
with organic compounds, cyanides, sulphates, etc.
The accumulation of heavy metals may have adverse effect on
aquatic flora and fauna and may constitute a public health
problem where contaminated organisms are used for food.
Algal growth due to nitrogen and phosphorous compounds can be
observed.
Metals in high concentration can be toxic to biota e.g. Hg, Cu, Cd,
Pb, As, and Se. Copper greater than 0.1 mg/L is toxic to microbes.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
6) THERMAL POLLUTION
Considerable thermal pollution results due to discharge of
hot water from thermal power plants, nuclear power
plants, and industries where water is used as coolant.
As a result of hot water discharge, the temperature of water
body increases, which reduces the DO content of the
water.
This alters the spectrum of organisms, which can adopt
to live at that temperature and DO level.
When organic matter is also present, the bacterial action
increases due to rise in temperature, hence, resulting in
rapid decrease of DO.
The discharge of hot water leads to the thermal
stratification in the water body, where hot water will
remain on the top.
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Classification and Effect of water

pollutants
7) RADIOACTIVE POLLUTANTS
Radioactive materials originate from the following:
Mining and processing of ores,
Use in research,
activities

agriculture,

medical

and

industrial

Radioactive discharge from nuclear power plants and

nuclear reactors, e.g., Sr90, Cesium Cs137, Plutonium Pu248.
Uses and testing of nuclear weapons
These isotopes are toxic to the life forms; they accumulate
in the bones, teeth and can cause serious disorders.
The safe concentration for lifetime consumption is 1 x 10 -7
microcuries per ml.
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Water
Quality

Oxygen Transfer in Water

Bodies
DO (ppm) at
20C

Goo
d

89

Slightly
polluted

6.7
8

Moderatel
y polluted
Heavily
pollute
d
Gravely
polluted
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4.5
6.7
4
4.5
Below
4
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What Are the Major Water

Pollution Problems in Streams
and Lakes?

Concept A While streams are extensively

polluted worldwide by human activities, they
can cleanse themselves of many pollutants if
we do not overload them or reduce their flows.
Concept B Addition of excessive nutrients to
lakes from human activities can disrupt lake
ecosystems, and prevention of such pollution is
more effective and less costly than cleaning it
up.
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Streams Can Cleanse

Themselves If We Do Not
Overload Them

Dilution

Biodegradation of wastes by bacteria

takes time
Oxygen sag curve

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Effect of oxygen-demanding wastes on Rivers

To predict the extent of oxygen depletion, it is
necessary to know how much waste is being discharged
and how much oxygen will be required to degrade the
waste. However, because oxygen is continuously being
replenished from the atmosphere, as well as being
consumed by organisms, the concentration of oxygen
in the river is determined by the relative rates of these
competing processes.
Organic oxygen-demanding materials are
commonly measured by determining the amount of
oxygen consumed during degradation in a manner
approximating degradation in natural waters.
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Biochemical Oxygen Demand

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is a chemical
procedure for determining the amount of dissolved
oxygen needed by aerobic biological organisms in a
body of water to break down organic material present
in a given water sample at certain temperature over a
specific time period. It is not a precise quantitative
test, although it is widely used as an indication of the
organic quality of water.
This test is based on the premise that all the
biodegradable organic matter contained in a water
sample will be oxidized to CO2 and H2O by
microorganisms using molecular oxygen.
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For example, the general overall reaction for

glucose addition is C6H12O6 + 6O2
6CO2+6 H2O
The theoretical BOD would then be
BOD = Grams of oxygen used/Grams of carbon
oxidized
= 192/72 = 2.67 g/g of carbon.
The actual BOD is less than the theoretical amount due to
the incorporation of some of the carbon into new bacterial
cells. The test is a bioassay that utilizes microorganisms in
conditions similar to those in natural water to measure
indirectly the amount of biodegradable organic matter
present.
Bioassay
means3 to measure by biological means.
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The test
A water sample is inoculated with bacteria that consume the
biodegradable organic matter to obtain energy for their life
processes. Because the organisms also utilize oxygen in the
process of consuming the waste, the process is called aerobic
decomposition.
This oxygen consumption is easily measured. The greater the
amount of organic matter present, the greater the amount of
oxygen utilized. The BOD test is therefore an indirect
measurement of organic matter because we actually measure
only the change in dissolved oxygen concentration caused by the
microorganisms as they degrade the organic matter.
Although not all organic matter is biodegradable and the actual test
procedures lack precision, the BOD test is still the most widely used method
of measuring organic matter because of the direct conceptual relationship
between BOD and oxygen depletion in receiving waters.
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BOD and oxygen-equivalent relationships

The kinetics of the BOD reaction are, for practical purposes,
formulated in accordance with first-order reaction kinetics and
may be expressed as

Where Lt: amount of the first-stage BOD remaining in the water at

timet and k is the reaction rate constant.
Rearranging equation (1)

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Integrating equation (2)

or,

or,

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(Where L or BODL is the BOD

remaining at time t = 0 i.e. the total
BOD initially present)

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Equation (4) is called the BOD rate equation.

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BOD
The ultimate BOD (Lo) is defined as the maximum BOD exerted by
the wastewater. It is difficult to assign exact time to achieve
ultimate BOD, and theoretically it takes infinite time.
The time required to achieve the ultimate BOD depends upon
the characteristics of the wastewater, i.e., chemical composition
of the organic matter present in the wastewater and its
biodegradable properties.
Oxygen depletion is related to both the ultimate BOD and the BOD
rate constant (K).
The ultimate BOD will increase in direct proportion to the
concentration of biodegradable organic matter.
The BOD reaction rate constant is dependent on the following:
The nature of the waste
The ability of the organisms in the system to utilize the waste
The temperature
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Effect of temperature on BOD test

Most biological processes speed up as the temperature increases
and slow down as the temperature drops. Because oxygen
utilization is caused by the metabolism of microorganisms, the
rate of utilization is similarly affected by temperature. Ideally,
the BOD rate constant should be experimentally determined for
the temperature of the receiving water. There are two difficulties
with this ideal.

Often the receiving-water temperatures changes throughout the

year, so a large number of tests would be required to define k.
An additional difficulty is the task of comparing data from
various locations having different temperatures.

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THANK YOU ALL

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