Water pollution and treatment

Outline

• Types of Water Pollution

• Source of Water Pollution
• Health Hazard
• Water Treatment

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Water Pollution
Water pollution refers to
• Degradation of water quality
• Generally look at the intended use of the water
• Its effects on public health
• Or its ecological impacts

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Types of Water Pollution
Water pollutants includes

• Biological Pollutant

1. Fecal coliform bacteria

2. Pathogenic bacteria and viruses

• Chemical Pollutant

1. Organic pollutant

2. Inorganic Pollutant

• Physical Pollutant

1. Sediment

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Types of Water Pollution :
Biological
• Total coliform bacteria are a collection of relatively harmless microorganisms that
live in large numbers in the intestines of man and warm-blood animals.

• Fecal coliform by themselves are usually not pathogenic, they are indicator
organisms, which means they may indicate the presence of other pathogenic
bacteria.

• The presence of fecal coliform bacteria in aquatic environments indicates that the
water has been contaminated with the fecal material of man or other animals.

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Types of Water Pollution :
Biological
A pathogen is an infectious agent. Pathogens are biological agents that cause illness to
its host (susceptible animal or human body that these microorganisms feed from and
multiply).

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Dissolved Oxygen
• Bacteria in streams decompose dead organic matter and this uses oxygen.

– Larger amount of bacterial activity = little oxygen in the water available to fish
and other organisms

– Can be reduced to levels so low that all other organisms die

– High Bacteria cause a high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD – common water
quality metric).

– Dissolved oxygen content of less than 5 mg/l of water is considered “polluted”

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Biochemical Oxygen Demand
• When a spill takes place three zones are identified:

– 1. A pollution zone, where a high BOD exists.

– 2. An active decomposition zone, where the dissolved oxygen content reaches a

minimum.

– 3. A recovery zone, where the dissolved oxygen increases and the BOD is reduced.

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Types of Water Pollution :
Chemical
Inorganic pollutants include cations and anions, most of them naturally occurring in
soils, sediments, and rocks.

• Cations include heavy metals, such as cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb),
mercury (Hg), and nickel (Ni).

• Anions of concern in groundwater include nitrate (NO3), nitrite (NO2), sulfate

(SO42), fluoride (F), chloride (Cl), arsenate (AsO43), and arsenite (AsO33).

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Types of Water Pollution :
Chemical
Organic pollutants are those chemicals that contain carbon as a molecular backbone.

• Volatile organic compounds such as trihalomethanes (e.g., chloroform,

bromodichloromethane)

• Solvents (e.g., tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE))

• Gasoline components (e.g., BTEX: benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene)

• Gasoline oxygenates (e.g., methyl-tert-butyl-ether (MTBE))

• Medium to highly polar pesticides (e.g., atrazines, phenylureas)

• Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (e.g., caffeine, carbamazepine,

sulfamethoxazole).

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Types of Water Pollution :
Physical
• Sediment consisting of rock and mineral fragments

– Ranging in size from gravel (>2mm) to finer sand, silt and clay to even finer
particles.

– Cause sediment pollution

• Two fold problem

– Results from erosion, which depletes a land resource (soil) at its site of origin

– Reduces the quality of water resource it enters

• Land use changes result in erosion and sedimentation

– Forested areas more stable

– Agricultural practices can lead to large soil erosion loss

– Large quantities of sedimentation during construction phase of urbanization

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Source of Water Pollution

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Source of Water Pollution
• Point sources can be well identified in space, for example, landfills, underground
storage tanks, or septic systems.
• Nonpoint sources are dispersed over large areas, for example, pesticide application
in agriculture.

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Health Hazard
Organic and Inorganic Contaminant
• Lead is hazardous to health as it accumulates in the body and affects the central
nervous system.
• Benzene and other petrochemicals can cause cancer even at low exposure levels.
• Arsenic poisoning through water can cause liver and nervous system damage,
vascular diseases and also skin cancer.
Pathogens

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Wastewater Treatment
• Water used for industrial and municipal purposes is often degraded during use

– Addition of suspended solids, salts, nutrients, bacteria, and oxygen demanding

material.

– Water must be treated before released

– Conventional methods; septic tanks and centralized treatment

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Septic-Tank Disposal Systems
• Common in many rural areas
and outlying areas of cities.
• Basic parts of a septic-tank
disposal system
– Sewer line from house to
underground tank
– Tank separates solids from
liquids
• Digest and store solids
• Liquid sent to
absorption field
– By the time water reaches
any fresh water

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Wastewater Treatment Plant
• Specially designed plants that accept municipal sewage from homes, businesses and
industrial sites.
• Delivered to plant by network of pipes
• Following treatment, they discharged into surface water
• Main purpose is to breakdown and reduce BOD and kill bacteria using chlorine methods
• usually divided into three categories:
– Primary treatment
– Secondary treatment
– Advanced wastewater treatment
• Primary and secondary required by law.

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Wastewater Treatment Plant

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Primary Treatment
• Incoming raw sewage enters plant
• Passes through series of screens
– Remove large floating organic
material
• Next enters a grit chamber
– Sand, small stones and grit removed
• Then enters sedimentation tank
– Particulate matter settles out to form
a sludge
• Sludge is removed and transported to a
digester
• Primary treatment removes ~35% of
BOD

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Secondary Treatment
• Most common treatment, activated sludge.

• Wastewater from primary sedimentation

tank enters the tank

• Then enters the final sedimentation tank

– Sludge settles out

– Some activated sludge used again in

aeration

• Most of the sludge transported to digester

• Secondary treatment removes ~90% of
BOD
• Sludge from the digester is dried and
disposed of in a landfill or applied to
improve soil.

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Advanced Wastewater
Treatment
• Additional pollutant can be removed by adding more treatment steps.

– Sand filters, carbon filters and chemicals applied to assist removal process.

• Treated water can then be used for agricultural or municipal irrigation (referred to
as “Grey Water”).

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The Waste Renovation and
Conservation Cycle
• Major steps in the cycle:

– 1. Return of treated wastewater to crops via a sprinkler or other irrigation

system.

– 2. Renovation, or natural purification by slow percolation of the wastewater

into the soil, to eventually recharge the groundwater resource with clean water.

– 3. Reuse of the treated water, which is pumped out of the ground for municipal,
industrial, institutional, or agricultural purposes.

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