Topic 5 - Water Quality Management

Spring 2012

Kazi Parvez Fattah

 Water Sources
 Historically the sources have been natural in nature,
such as rivers, streams, lakes and aquifers
 Increase in population and scarcity of water in some
parts of the world have made it necessary to look
for alternative sources
 Some of the alternative sources investigated are
discharges from wastewater treatment plants, urban
storm water flows, saline water conversion
 This reuse of water is important as up to about 75%
of treated potable water is returned to a discharge
point after its use
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 Water Quantities
 Approximately 1385 million cubic kilometers of
water are available on earth.
 97.5% is salt water; 2.5% is freshwater
 Nearly 90% of this freshwater is not readily
available (mostly as ice)
 Only 0.26% of the water on this world is available
for humans and other organisms
 Only 0.014% of this water can be used for drinking
water production, as most of it is stored in clouds or
in the ground.
Source: http://www.lenntech.com/specific-questions-water-quantities.htm

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 Water Consumption

 The annual per capita

water use for each part of
the world:
- North Americans use 1,280m3

- Europeans and Australians

use 694 m3
- Asians use 535 m3
- South Americans use 311 m3
- Africans use 186 m3

Ref. http://www.lenntech.com/specific-questions-water-quantities.htm
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 Cost of Water

Ref. http://www.lenntech.com/specific-questions-water-quantities.htm
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 Desalination
 Recovering water from salty water
 World-wide, 13,080 desalination plants produce more than
12 billion gallons of water a day (Ref. International Desalination
Association)
 Existing facilities and facilities under construction (not
complete)
 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
 Australia
 Cyprus
 United Kingdom
 United States
 Trinidad and Tobago

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 Alkalinity

 The quantitative capacity of a solution to

neutralize acid
 A measure of the buffering capacity of water

 A measure to neutralize acidic pollution of

water
 The alkalinity is equal to the stoichiometric sum
of
 HCO -, CO 2-,OH- and (H+)
3 3

 2
Alkalinity (moles / L)  [ HCO3 ]  2[CO3 ]  [OH  ]  [ H  ]
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 Alkalinity..contd
 Expressed as mg/L CaCO3

 mg/L as CaCO3 = (mg/L of species) * (EWCaCO3/EWspecies)

 The alkalinity is found by adding all the carbonate species
and the hydroxide and then subtracting the hydrogen ions
 No need to multiply the CO32- (according to the previous
equation) as it is already taken care of when converted in
terms of EW.
 Example 4.8: A water contains 100mg/L CO32- and 75mg/L
of HCO3- at a pH of 10. Calculate the alkalinity at 25°C.
Approximate the alkalinity by ignoring [OH]- and [H]+
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 Hardness
 It is the ability of a water to react with soap (to form
lather)
 Occurs due to the presence of polyvalent cations
 Ca, Mg bicarbonate and sulphates
 It reduces the effectiveness of soap and detergent
 Causes the formation of “scaling”
 Total hardness is computed by the sum of all
polyvalent cations

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 Types of Hardness
 Carbonate hardness: component of total hardness
associated with carbonate and bicarbonate
 Non carbonate hardness are other component of hardness.
Also known as permanent hardness.
 Total Hardness = Carbonate hardness + Non
carbonate hardness
 Most carbonate hardness are associated with
divalent cations, such as calcium and magnesium
 Expressed as mg/L as CaCO3 or meq/L

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 Hard Water Classification

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 Relationship Between Hardness and
Alkalinity

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 Example of Hardness
 Example 4-11. Given the following analysis of a groundwater, construct
a bar chart of the constituents, expressed as CaCO 3.

Ion mg/L as mg/L as

ion CaCO3

Ca2+ 103.0 258

Mg2+ 5.5 23
Na+ 16.0 35
HCO3- 255.0 209
SO42- 49.0 51
Cl- 37.0 52

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 Water Supply
 Surface water
 Ground water
 Sea water
 Rain water harvesting

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 Surface Water

 Surface water is
among the most
important sources of
water being used for
drinking water
 Not abundant in nature
 Easy to collect
 Unaffected surface
water is relatively pure
in nature

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 Ground Water
 Groundwater is abundant
 It is filtered through natural
aquifer
 Relatively pure

 It can be contaminated through

leaching of metals and organics
from the minerals and waste
disposal sites
 Salt water intrusion can be a
problem

Source. jnuenvis.nic.in/subject/freshwater/groundwater.htm

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 Sea Water
 Abundant in nature
 High salinity
 Technological means are
available to use sea water as a
source
 Expensive (desalination,

reverse osmosis)
 It limits the adaptation of sea

water as a source of drinking

water
Source. http://www.power-technology.com/projects/taweelah/
 Not suitable for places far

away from sea

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 Rain Water Harvesting
 It is the gathering,
accumulating or sorting of
rainwater
 Usually collected on the roof of
the house and stored in large
tanks
 Very good quality water
 Can be used for drinking with
minimum treatment
 Suitable for isolated places
 Adopted in urban areas as well
 Not suitable for places having
low rainfall
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 Groundwater - Surface water - Seawater
Groundwater Surface water Seawater
Physical typically prone to physical affected by
characteristics reasonable interference and physical
levels of therefore has high interference
turbidity and levels of turbidity and
color color
Chemical high have high chemical have very
characteristics concentrations contamination high salinity
of leached depending upon the
contaminants hydro geological
(both metal and pattern
inorganic ions)
Microbiological typically free prone to high microbial can have high
characteristics from microbial contamination microbial
contamination contamination

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 Water Pollution

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 Water Pollution in Jumeira, UAE

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 Water Pollution Sources

 Point sources
 Discharge of pipes
(domestic wastewater,
industrial discharges)
 Concentrated animal feed
lots
 Non-point sources
 Urban runoff (road silt,
oil, etc.)
 Agricultural runoff Source: http://visual.merriam-
webster.com/earth/environment/water-pollution.php
(fertilizer, pesticides)

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 Depletion of Dissolved Oxygen
 Oxygen remains in water as dissolved form
 In natural water (surface water), there are organic matter present that
consume dissolved oxygen
 Water receives oxygen through diffusion from air
 If the oxygen level falls too low, aquatic life can be harmed

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 Streeter-Phelps equation
 Combines oxygen consumption and reoxygenation to
describe deficit as a function of time

D
k d La  k d t
kr  kd
e e 
kr t
 Da e kr t
 
kr  kn
 e  e k t 
k n Ln  k t
 n r

D = oxygen deficit at any time, mg/L

Da = oxygen deficit immediately below
pollutant discharge location, mg/L
La = ultimate oxygen demand immediately
below pollutant discharge location, mg/L
kd = deoxygenation constant, d-1
kr = reoxygenation constant, d-1
kn = nitrogenous deoxigenation coeficient, d-1
Ln = ultimate nitrogenous oxygen demand
immediately below pollutant discharge
location, mg/L
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 Waste Mixing in Water Bodies
 Treated/un-treated waste is often mixed with the
receiving water body (like a river or stream)
 Waste has high BOD, whereas receiving body
normally has low/no BOD
 Solution to pollution is dilution

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 Management Strategies
 Identify the lowest DO that is acceptable to aquatic species in
the receiving body
 Solve the DO sag curve and known mixing
 Worst case scenario: low river volume, high waste volume

 Only parameters engineer can control

 Initial ultimate BOD

 D – initial deficit in dissolved oxygen

o
 Available tools
 Further processing of waste to reduce BOD

 Aeration of waste prior to discharge to reduce initial deficit

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 Streeter-Phelps Example
 Text book Problem 5-36

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