Cleaning the river Damodar (India): impact of COVID-19 lockdown on water quality and future rejuvenation strategies

Globally, it is established that the partial lockdown system assists to improve the health of the total environment due to inadequate anthropogenic actions in different economic sectors. The ample research on fitness of environment has been proved that the strict imposition of lockdown was the blessings of environment. The river Damodar has historical significance and lifeline for huge population of Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India but in the recent years the water quality has been deteriorated due to untreated industrial effluents and urban sewage. The main objective of this study is to examine the water quality of river Damodar during and prelockdown phase for domestic use and restoration of river ecosystem. A total of eleven (11) effluent discharge sites were selected in prelockdown and during lockdown phase. A new approach of water quality assessment, i.e., water pollution index (WPI) has been applied in this study. WPI is weightage free, unbiased method to analysis of water quality. The result shows that the physical, chemical and heavy elements were found beyond the standard limit in prelockdown period. The cation and anion were arranged in an order of Na²⁺ ?>?K⁺ ?>?Ca²⁺ ?>?Mg²⁺ and Cl^??>?So₄^??>?No₃^??>?F^? in both the sessions. WPI of prelockdown showed that about 100% water samples are of highly polluted. WPI of lockdown period showed that around 90.90% samples improved to ‘good quality’ and 9.10% of samples are of ‘moderately polluted.’ Hypothesis testing by ‘t’ test proved that there was a significant difference (ρ?=?0.05%) in values of each parameter between two periods. Null hypothesis was rejected and indicated the improvement of river water quality statistically. Spatial mapping using Arc GIS 10.4 interpolation (IDW) helps to understand spatial intensity of pollution load in two periods. This research study should be helpful for further management and spatial diagnosis of water resource of river Damodar.

     

Influence of staging, mean cell residence time, and thermophilic temperature on the thermophilic anaerobic digestion process.

As Class B biosolids land application has become less acceptable to many local jurisdictions, low-cost processes to achieve Class A standards have become more popular. Prominent among these low-cost processes is thermophilic anaerobic digestion. As a result, thermophilic anaerobic digestion is now a popular topic in wastewater treatment literature, but quantifiable methods for selecting a particular thermophilic process have not been offered. To provide for this need, an empirical model was developed from data collected in thermophilic anaerobic digestion studies conducted using East Bay Municipal Utility District's (Oakland, California) primary and waste activated sludge to feed both bench- and full-scale digesters. The model predicts at which thermophilic temperature and mean cell residence time (MCRT) one process will outperform or equal another, with respect to fecal coliform reduction. The different disinfection efficiencies in the different thermophilic processes might be explained by the presence or absence of high volatile acid and/or un-ionized ammonia levels in the processes' digested sludges. Data from these studies also show an apparent relationship between increased thermophilic temperatures and volatile solids destruction, and between increased temperatures and specific volatile acids production, for digesters operating at a 13-day MCRT and higher, but not for digesters operating at a 2-day MCRT.