Long-term variations of water quality parameters in the Maroon River, Iran

Sixteen water quality parameters have been monitored at four stations located along the Maroon River during 1989?C2008. The trend analysis was performed on seasonal and annual time-scales using the Mann?CKendall test, the Sen??s slope estimator and the linear regression. The relationships of the water quality parameters to river discharge were also investigated. The statistical methods showed both positive and negative trends in annual water quality data. However, significant trends were detected by the statistical methods only in calcium, magnesium, sodium absorption ratio, pH, and turbidity series. The results indicated that the concentrations of the water quality parameters increased in spring and winter seasons, while the concentrations were diluted in summer and autumn seasons in the last two decades. Moreover, the highest numbers of significant trends were found in the spring and summer series, respectively. According to the regression analysis, most of the water quality parameters were negatively correlated with river discharge.     

Water quality trend analysis for the Karoon River in Iran

The Karoon River basin, with a basin area of 67,000 km², is located in the southern part of Iran. Monthly measurements of the discharge and the water quality variables have been monitored at the Gatvand and Khorramshahr stations of the Karoon River on a monthly basis for the period 1967–2005 and 1969–2005 for Gatvand and Khorramshahr stations, respectively. In this paper the time series of monthly values of water quality parameters and the discharge were analyzed using statistical methods and the existence of trends and the evaluation of the best fitted models were performed. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to select the theoretical distribution which best fitted the data. Simple regression was used to examine the concentration-time relationships. The concentration-time relationships showed better correlation in Khorramshahr station than that of Gatvand station. The exponential model expresses better concentration – time relationships in Khorramshahr station, but in Gatvand station the logarithmic model is more fitted. The correlation coefficients are positive for all of the variables in Khorramshahr station also in Gatvand station all of the variables are positive except magnesium (Mg²⁺), bicarbonates () and temporary hardness which shows a decreasing relationship. The logarithmic and the exponential models describe better the concentration-time relationships for two stations.     

监测和评价浑江水质的底栖动物指标体系研究

在浑江六个断面采集到底栖动物(4门、6纲、12目、34科、57属)84种,列出了相关名录。通过运用描述对比法、指示生物法、生物指数法对浑江采样水体的水质进行了底栖动物学综合评价。在此基础上建立了监测和评价浑江水质的底栖动物指标体系,并探讨了河流水体污染生态学中的底栖动物与水质状况的相关性和对水质状况的指示性及利用该体系监测评价浑江水质的实用性。     

Application of statistical modeling to optimize a coastal water quality monitoring program

The long-term water quality monitoring program implemented by the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in 1992 is extensive and has provide substantial understanding of the seasonality of the waters in both Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay and the response to improvements in effluent quality and offshore transfer of the effluent in September 2000. The monitoring program was designed with limited knowledge of spatial and temporal variability and long-term trends within the system. This led to an extensive spatial and temporal sampling program. The data through 2003 showed high correlation within physical parameters measured (e.g., salinity, dissolved oxygen) and in biological measures such as chlorophyll fluorescence. To address the potential sampling redundancies in the measurement program, an assessment of the impact of reduced levels of monitoring on the ability to make water quality decisions was completed. The optimization was conducted by applying statistical models that took into account whether there was evidence of a seasonal pattern in the data. The optimization used model survey average readings to identify temporal fixed effects, model survey-average-corrected individual station readings to identify spatial fixed effects, corrected the individual station readings for temporal and spatial fixed effects and derived a correlation model for the corrected data, and applied the correlation model to characterize the correlation of annual average readings from reduced monitoring programs with true parameter levels. Reductions in the number of sampling stations were found less detrimental to the quality of the data for annual decision-making than reductions in the number of surveys per year, although there is less of a difference in this regard for dissolved oxygen than there is for chlorophyll. The analysis led to recommendations for a substantially lower monitoring effort with minimal loss of information. The recommendation supported an annual budget savings of approximately $183,000. Most of the savings was from fewer surveys as approximately $21,000 came from the reduction in the number of stations monitored from 21 to 7 and associated laboratory analytical costs.     

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy application in environmental monitoring of water quality: a review

Water quality monitoring is a critical part of environmental management and protection, and to be able to qualitatively and quantitatively determine contamination and impurity levels in water is especially important. Compared to the currently available water quality monitoring methods and techniques, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has several advantages, including no need for sample pre-preparation, fast and easy operation, and chemical free during the process. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the fundamentals of aqueous LIBS analysis and effectively apply this technique to environmental monitoring. This article reviews the research conducted on LIBS analysis for liquid samples, and the article content includes LIBS theory, history and applications, quantitative analysis of metallic species in liquids, LIBS signal enhancement methods and data processing, characteristics of plasma generated by laser in water, and the factors affecting accuracy of analysis results. Although there have been many research works focusing on aqueous LIBS analysis, detection limit and stability of this technique still need to be improved to satisfy the requirements of environmental monitoring standard. In addition, determination of nonmetallic species in liquid by LIBS is equally important and needs immediate attention from the community. This comprehensive review will assist the readers to better understand the aqueous LIBS technique and help to identify current research needs for environmental monitoring of water quality.     

Ensuring quality in long term environmental monitoring for chemical speciation

The awareness regarding quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) for environmental monitoring has considerably increased in the past few years, especially with respect to the determination of chemical species, since errors occurring at various levels may considerably affect the interpretation of results (e.g. studies of toxic impact, geochemical pathways, etc.). QA for environmental analysis covers a broad range of activities from sample collection to laboratory work and the approach for ensuring quality data should be considered in a global context. However, whereas great emphasis has been placed on QA within the laboratory, there have been few systematic attempts to evaluate risks of discrepancies related, for example, to field manipulations. The situation is even worse when monitoring is applied to relatively new fields such as chemical speciation. This paper outlines some of the main aspects of quality control of environmental analysis, including the validation of methods, sampling and sample handling, storage, etc., with special emphasis on the monitoring of chemical forms of elements (e.g. species of tin, mercury, lead and selenium).     

和田地区环境监测质量管理工作初探

结合和田地区环境监测站环境监测质量管理现状,就提高环境监测质量管理水平,充分发挥其在环境管理中的基础性作用,初步探讨了环境质量管理的必要性和基本思路。     

The value of long-term environmental monitoring programs: an Ohio River case study

As a subset of environmental monitoring, fish sampling programs have been an important part of assessing the potential impacts of water withdrawals and effluent discharges on fish populations for many years. New environmental regulations often require that adverse environmental impacts to fish populations be minimized. Without long-term field data, population evaluations may incorrectly indicate adverse impacts where none exist or no impact where one is likely to occur. Several electric utility companies have funded the Ohio River Ecological Research Program, which has been in existence for over 40 years and consists of fish, habitat, and water quality studies at multiple power plant sites on the mainstem Ohio River. Sampling includes seasonal night-time electrofishing and daytime beach seining at three upstream and three downstream locations near each plant. The long-term nature of the program allows for the establishment of aquatic community indices to support evaluations of technology performance, the collaborative development of compliance metrics, and the assessment of fish population trends. Studies have concluded that the Ohio River fish community has improved in response to better water quality and that power plant fish entrainment and impingement and thermal discharges have had little or no measureable impact. Through collaboration and the use of long-term data, $6.3 million in monitoring costs have been saved during recent fish impingement studies. The ability to access a multiyear fish abundance database, with its associated data on age, growth, and fecundity, improves the quality of such evaluations and reduces the need for extensive field sampling at individual locations.     

Monoclonal antibody-based broad-specificity immunoassay for monitoring organophosphorus pesticides in environmental water samples

The development of easy-to-use and rapid-monitoring immunoassay methods for organic environmental pollutants in a class-selective manner is a topic of considerable environmental interest. In this work, a heterologous competitive indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ciELISA) based on a monoclonal antibody (MAb) with broad-specificity for organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) was applied to the detection of O,O-diethyl and O,O-dimethyl OPs in water samples. The ciELISA conditions were carefully optimized to obtain a three to five-fold improvement of sensitivity for most OPs, and thirteen OPs were determined at concentrations ranging from 0.017 to 30 ng mL(-1). The determination of spiked environmental water samples showed average recoveries from 81.5% to 115.1%, with the coefficient of variation (CV) ranging from 6.1% to 20.9%, which showed satisfactory reproducibility of the developed ciELISA. To overcome the negative aspect of broad-specificity immunoassays not providing qualitative and quantitative analysis of individual OPs in blind samples, we used "percent inhibition rate" to make the developed ciELISA a semi-quantitative method, which allows the monitoring of positive samples from hundreds of negative samples. The determination of OPs in blind water samples by the developed ELISA with confirmation by HPLC-MS/MS analysis demonstrated that the assay is ideally suited as a screening method for OP residues prior to chromatographic analysis.     

Investigation of trihalomethanes formation potential in Karoon River water, Iran

Soil, rock and water samples were collected from India??s oldest coalfield Raniganj to investigate trace metal contamination from mining activity. Our data reveal that trace metal concentration in soil samples lies above the average world soil composition; especially, Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn concentrations exceed the maximum allowable concentration proposed by the European Commission for agricultural soils. In particular, Cr, Cu and Ni exceed the ecotoxicological limit, and Ni exceeds the typical value for cultivated soils. Mineral dissolution from overburden material and high adsorption capacity of laterite soil are responsible for the elevated concentrations. This is evident from enrichment factor (E _f), geoaccumulation index (I _geo) and metal pollution index values. Sediment quality guideline index indicates toxicity to local biota although enrichment index suggests no threat from consuming crops cultivated in the contaminated soil.     

High potential for the formation of haloacetic acids in the Karoon River water in Iran

The impact of the total organic carbon (TOC), chlorine dosage, water temperature, reaction time, pH, and seasonal variation on the formation of haloacetic acids (HAAs) in the Karoon River in Iran was studied. The results showed that dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid were the most detected HAA₅. The HAA₅ formation potential (HAA₅FP) levels in the Karoon River water in spring time, when the water TOC content exceeded 4 mg/L, were 1.38 times higher than during the winter season, when the water TOC content was below 3.5 mg/L. There was not a strong correlation between the HAA₅FP and the residence time for the Karoon River water. For the range of the water temperatures studied, there was little variation in the HAA₅FP in cold water, but in warmer water, the values of the HAA₅FP varied quickly.     

Optimization models for siting water quality monitoring stations in a catchment

A water quality monitoring network (WQMN) must be designed so as to adequately protect the water quality in a catchment. Although a simulated annealing (SA) method was previously applied to design a WQMN, the SA method cannot ensure the solution it obtained is the global optimum. Therefore, two new linear optimization models are proposed in this study to minimize the deviation of the cost values expected to identify the possible pollution sources based on uniform cost (UC) and coverage elimination uniform cost (CEUC) schemes. The UC model determines the expected cost values by considering each sub-catchment being covered by which station, while the CEUC model determines the coverage of each station by eliminating the area covered by any upstream station. The proposed models are applied to the Derchi reservoir catchment in Taiwan. Results show that the global optimal WQMN can be effectively determined by using the UC or CEUC model, for which both results are better than those from the SA method, especially when the number of stations becomes large.     

Drinking water quality monitoring and surveillance for safe water supply in Gangtok, India

To ascertain the quality of drinking water being supplied, water quality monitoring and surveillance was conducted in Gangtok city at various treatment stages, service reservoirs, distribution network, public standposts, and households. No significant change in raw water quality was observed on day-to-day basis. Residual chlorine was found in the range of nil to 0.2 mg/l in the sump water/finished water. Throughout the year (i.e., during summer, winter, and monsoon seasons), the total coliform and fecal coliform counts were ranged from nil to 7 CFU/100 ml and nil to 3 CFU/100 ml, respectively, in sump water of Selep and VIP complex water treatment plant; however, at consumer end, those were observed as nil to 210 CFU/100 ml and nil to 90 CFU/100 ml, respectively. These variations in bacterial counts among the different service reservoirs and consumer ends may be attributed to the general management practices for maintenance of service reservoirs and the possibility of enroute contamination. Evaluation of the raw water quality indicates that the water is suitable for drinking after conventional treatment followed by disinfection. The finished water quality meets the level of standards described as per Bureau of Indian Standard specifications (BIS:10500 1991) for potability in terms of its physicochemical characteristics.     

Statistical needs in national water quality monitoring programs

The concept that a few well chosen, strategically placed, water quality stations can provide valuable scientific information to water managers is common to many countries. Historically within Canada, water quality regional networks (Great Lakes network, Prairie Provinces Water Board network, Long Range Transport of Airborne Pollutants network, etc.) have been successfully operating for many years. This paper will describe the difficulties associated with developing a national water quality network for a country the size of Canada. In particular, it will describe some of the statistical tools presently being used in regional networks which are suitable for a national network, and discuss the need to develop new statistical tools for environmental monitoring in the 1990's.     

Revising river water quality monitoring networks using discrete entropy theory: the Jajrood River experience

This paper aims at evaluating and revising the spatial and temporal sampling frequencies of the water quality monitoring system of the Jajrood River in the Northern part of Tehran, Iran. This important river system supplies 23% of domestic water demand of the Tehran metropolitan area with population of more than 10 million people. In the proposed methodology, by developing a model for calculating a discrete version of pair-wise spatial information transfer indices (SITIs) for each pair of potential monitoring stations, the pair-wise SITI matrices for all water quality variables are formed. Also, using a similar model, the discrete temporal information transfer indices (TITIs) using the data of the existing monitoring stations are calculated. Then, the curves of the pair-wise SITI versus distance between monitoring stations and TITI versus time lags for all water quality variables are derived. Then, using a group pair-wise comparison matrix, the relative weights of the water quality variables are calculated. In this paper, a micro-genetic-algorithm-based optimization model with the objective of minimizing a weighted average spatial and temporal ITI is developed and for a pre-defined total number of stations, the best combination of monitoring stations is selected. The results show that the existing monitoring system of the Jajrood River should be partially strengthened and in some cases the sampling frequencies should be increased. Based on the results, the proposed approach can be used as an effective tool for evaluating, revising, or redesigning the existing river water quality monitoring systems.     

Industrial effluent quality, pollution monitoring and environmental management

Royal Commission Environmental Control Department (RC-ECD) at Yanbu industrial city in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has established a well-defined monitoring program to control the pollution from industrial effluents. The quality of effluent from each facility is monitored round the clock. Different strategic measures have been taken by the RC-ECD to implement the zero discharge policy of RC. Industries are required to pre-treat the effluent to conform pretreatment standards before discharging to central biological treatment plant. Industries are not allowed to discharge any treated or untreated effluent in open channels. After treatment, reclaimed water must have to comply with direct discharge standards before discharge to the sea. Data of industrial wastewater collected from five major industries and central industrial wastewater treatment plant (IWTP) is summarized in this report. During 5-year period, 3,705 samples were collected and analyzed for 43,436 parameters. There were 1,377 violations from pretreatment standards from all the industries. Overall violation percentage was 3.17%. Maximum violations were recorded from one of the petrochemical plants. The results show no significant pollution due to heavy metals. Almost all heavy metals were within RC pretreatment standards. High COD and TOC indicates that major pollution was due to hydrocarbons. Typical compounds identified by GC-MS were branched alkanes, branched alkenes, aliphatic ketones, substituted thiophenes, substituted phenols, aromatics and aromatic alcohols. Quality of treated water was also in compliance with RC direct discharge standards. In order to achieve the zero discharge goal, further studies and measures are in progress.     

Water quality monitoring in Washington's Timber/Fish/Wildlife program

The Timber, Fish, and Wildlife program (TFW) in Washington is a consensus approach to implementing reforms in forest practice regulations involving industrial timberland owners, state agencies, environmental groups, Indian tribes, and non-industrial forest landowners. A cooperative monitoring and research effort (CMER) has been included as a part of this program. Technical projects undertaken by CMER are overseen by a series of steering committees, one of which is the Water Quality Steering Committee. Projects currently being addressed by the Water Quality Steering Committee include: forestry impacts on water temperature, water quality impacts from forestry derived sediment, use of bio-indicators to assess the water quality impacts of forest practices, and the effect of forest chemical applications on water quality. A close link between the research efforts in TFW and the procedure for implementing regulatory change has greatly improved the responsiveness of the rule making process to new information. Results from the water temperature and forest chemical work is currently being incorporated into the forest practice regulations.     

Chemical monitoring and evaluation of the water quality of the Douro River at the Crestuma-Lever dam

Water taken from the Crestuma-Lever dam on the Douro River was evaluated considering the Portuguese Decree-law no. 236/98 of 1st August, 1998. This paper presents the metrological characteristics, validation of analytical methodologies and the data obtained from seasonal samplings. The test parameters selected are: temperature, pH, chloride, conductivity, carbon dioxide, alkalinity, hardness, oxidability, dissolved oxygen, BOD5, total suspended solids, sulfide, phosphate, silica, ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, sulfate, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. From data analysis we can conclude that the water presented the following characteristics: a pH situated in the neutral zone; a median mineralization; a medium hardness; well oxygenated water; and a carbonate hardness exclusively due to bicarbonates. The temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia, chlorides, sulfates, copper, zinc and BOD5 were compared with the legal limits presented in annexes XXI and I of Decree-law 236/98. The results relating to total hardness, nitrites, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, aluminium, sulfides and oxidability were compared with the legal values in annex VI as there are no limits relating to these parameters in annexes XXI and I.     

Intensive water quality monitoring in a Taiwan bathing beach

A total of 357 water samples were collected from a public beach in northern Taiwan during beach season, and the densities of enterococci were analyzed by Enterolert methods. The mean enterococci level was 356 MPN/100 ml and ranged from <10 to 2,005 MPN/100 ml, which was classified as high contamination level according to the WHO water quality guideline (95 percentile >1,000 MPN/100 ml). Most of the deteriorated water quality conditions occurred during rainfall. By excluding data from the rain days, the overall beach water quality would be considered in the moderate contamination level (95 percentile 200-1,000 MPN/100 ml). Among the selected microbiological parameters tested, the densities of total coliforms and enterococci exhibited the highest correlation (r = 0.449, p = 0.009), followed by the concentrations of total coliforms and fecal coliforms (r = 0.403, p = 0.02). Nonetheless, no significant correlation was found between enterococci and fecal coliform levels (r = 0.197, p = 0.271).