11

Chapter

Water Pollution:
Analysis and Control
Water is considered to be polluted when it contains enough anthropogenic contaminants to
render it unfit for a specific beneficial use; such as drinking, recreation or fish propagation.
Water pollution occurs when pollutants are discharged directly or indirectly into the water
bodies (such as lakes, streams or rivers, oceans, aquifers) without adequate treatment to
remove harmful compounds. Water, because of its polar molecular structure, has a stronger
tendency to dissolve other substances than any other common solvent and hence referred to
as the universal solvent. Pure water is practically not found in natural conditions in water
bodies, it usually has something dissolved or suspended in it. It is only when these dissolved
or suspended substances go beyond a certain concentration in comparison with the water
quality standards for a particular beneficial use, the water is considered to be contaminated.
Although anthropogenic activity is the primary cause of water pollution, natural phenomena
such as storms, cyclones, algal blooms, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes can also cause a
major change in water quality and ecological status of water.
In many parts of the world, the introduction of pollutants from human activity has seriously
degraded water quality even to the extent of turning pristine streams to foul open sewers with
only a few life forms and fewer beneficial uses. Most of the rivers in urban areas in developing
countries are considered as end points for effluent discharge from industries. In Bangladesh,
industrial effluents from a cluster of industries in and around Dhaka in addition to untreated
domestic sewage from DWASA sewerage lines are indiscriminately polluting the rivers
surrounding the nation’s capital. The most severe deterioration occurs in the dry season,
when a decrease in river flow (sometimes tidally fluctuating) augments the effect of
pollution bringing down the dissolved oxygen level close to zero at certain reaches of these
rivers and thereby making the survival of fish almost impossible. The minimum requirement
of dissolved oxygen for healthy fish population is 5 – 8 mg/L.

CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.1 The dumping of untreated industrial waste into the Turag River in Tongi. The
dark colored water shows how heavily the river has been contaminated with chemical
waste (Inset). (Photo source: The Daily Star, August 2, 2011, www.thedailystar.net).

In today’s world, the disease burden associated with polluted water has made it an issue of
global concern. In the past, epidemics of waterborne diseases such as cholera have been

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 307

 responsible for the deaths of thousands of lives in the United States. Fortunately, epidemics
of such diseases have been largely eliminated in the United States and other developed
countries as a result of treating drinking water prior to consumption or through widespread
vaccination. But this is certainly not the case worldwide; outbreaks of waterborne diseases
continue to threat the developing countries. It has been suggested that water pollution is the
leading worldwide cause of deaths and diseases, and that it accounts for the deaths of more
than 14,000 people daily. In Bangladesh, where sanitation conditions are largely inadequate,
contamination of water becomes a death trap. About 80% of the diseases are water-related
that include cholera, typhoid, dysentery, hepatitis, diarrhea etc. claiming on an average one-
tenth of each person’s productive time and causing death in 20-30% cases. Providing water,
safe for drinking and other purposes is essential for life and is one of the most important goals
of development. Water quality management is concerned with the control of pollution from
human activity so that the water is not degraded to the point that it is no longer suitable for its
intended use.

Box 11.1
Water Pollution in historical times: “The Great Stink” in London

Until the late 16th century, London citizens were

reliant for their water supplies on water from
shallow wells, the River Thames and its tributaries,
or natural springs. In 1815 house waste was
permitted to be carried to the Thames via the
sewers. So for several years human waste was
dumped into the Thames which was potentially
pumped back to the same households for drinking,
cooking and bathing. Around 1858, there were over
200,000 cesspits in London. Emptying one cesspit
cost a shilling - a cost the average London citizen
then could hardly afford. As a result, these cesspits
turned their household environment severely
odorous. During that time flush toilets were
introduced, replacing the chamber-pots that most
Londoners had used. These dramatically increased
the volume of water and waste that was being
poured into existing cesspits. These often
overflowed into street drains designed originally to
cope with rainwater, but now also being used to
CHAPTER 11

carry outfalls from factories, slaughterhouses and

Figure: A caricature commenting on a
letter from Faraday on the state of the other activities, contaminating the city before
river in the times magazine emptying into the River Thames. The summer of
1858 was unusually hot. The Thames and many of
its urban tributaries were overflowing with sewage; the warm weather encouraged bacteria to thrive and
the resulting smell was so overwhelming that it affected the work of the House of Commons

308 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 (countermeasures included draping curtains soaked in chloride of lime, while members considered
relocating upstream to Hampton Court) and the law courts (plans were made to evacuate to Oxford and
St Albans). This particular period in the summer of 1858 in London is known as the time of “The Great
Stink” or “The Big Stink” referring to the noxious smell emanating from the untreated waste in Thames
river and the cesspits in central London. Heavy rain finally ended the heat and humidity of summer and
the immediate crisis ended. However, a House of Commons select committee was appointed to report
on the Stink and recommend how to end the problem. Numerous caricatures emerged at that time to
humorously portray the period of the Great Stink. One such caricature is shown in the figure to depict
Faraday’s comments on the state of the river Thames in the Times magazine of July, 1855.(Source:
www.wikipedia.org)

To understand how much waste can be assimilated by a water body, we need to know about
the type of pollutants and the manner in which they affect water quality. This chapter deals
first with major types of pollutants and their sources, placing the emphasis on categories of
pollutants found in domestic wastewaters. To understand the impact of human activities on
water quality, the fate of contaminants particularly oxygen-demanding wastes on rivers and
streams will be discussed in detail. This chapter will also focus on the characteristics of a
typical lake environment and how water pollutants affect these conditions.

11.1 Water Pollutant Categories

To understand the effects of water pollution it is necessary to classify pollutants into various
categories. Pollutants can be classified either by (a) nature of their origin or (b) groups of
substances they contain. According to nature of their origin, a pollutant can be classified as
either a point source or a dispersed/non-point source.
Point sources. A point source pollutant is one that reaches the water from a pipe, channel or
any other confined and localized source. Domestic sewage and industrial wastes are called
point sources because they are generally collected by a network of pipes or channels and
conveyed to a single point of discharge into the receiving water. After applying proper
wastewater treatment, the pollution from point sources can either be reduced or eliminated.
Figure 11.2shows the point source discharge locations on Sitalakhya, Balu and Turag rivers;
all these rivers surround Dhaka city, the nation’s capital. Major pollutants are from the
industries which discharge their effluents either directly on the rivers or on different
channels (khals) which connect to these rivers.
Non-point sources. A dispersed or non-point source is a broad, unconfined area from
which pollutants enter the water body. Surface runoff from agricultural areas may carry silt,
pesticides, fertilizers or animal wastes to streams but not from a particular point. These
CHAPTER 11

materials can enter the water all along the stream as it flows through the area. Point source
pollution can be easier to deal with compared to nonpoint source pollution; point sources
can be readily identified and treatment plant may be installed to reduce pollution. The
regulatory agencies can monitor the effluents from the treatment plant from time to time and
may impose restrictions on effluent discharge. On the other hand, pollution from a non-
point source is difficult to control; the most effective way is to set appropriate restrictions on
landuse.

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 309

 Figure 11.2 Point source loadings (in kg/day) in Sitalakhya and Balu rivers. BODu =
Ultimate Biochemical Oxygen Demand, NH3-N = Ammonia-Nitrogen (Source: Alam et al.
2011).
CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.3 Non-point source pollution in Buriganga (Image source: The Daily Star,
www.thedailystar.net).

310 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

Based on the groups of substance they contain, pollutants can be categorized by the
following seven broad groups, also shown in Table 11.1, which also includes the principal
sources of each group:
(1) Oxygen-demanding wastes
(2) Nutrients
(3) Pathogens
(4) Suspended solids
(5) Salts
(6) Toxic metals
(7) Toxic organic compounds
(8) Heat

Table 11.1 Major pollutant categories and principal sources of pollutants.

Point sources Non-point sources

Pollutant category Domestic Sewage Industrial wastes Agricultural runoff Urban runoff
Oxygen-demanding X X X X
wastes
Nutrients X X X X
Pathogens X X X X
Suspended solids/ X X X X
sediments
Salts X X X
Toxic metals X X
Toxic organic chemicals X X
Heat X

Oxygen-demanding wastes. Anything that can be oxidized in the receiving water with the
consumption of dissolved molecular oxygen is termed oxygen-demanding material. Oxygen
demanding materials are primarily from human waste and food residue. Food processing
and paper industries also produce oxygen-demanding wastes. As these wastes are oxidized, it
reduces the amount of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) available threatening fish and other aquatic
lives. In extreme cases as in anaerobic conditions, the higher forms of life (such as fish) may
be killed or driven off. Also, as the DO is depleted, undesirable odors, tastes and colors not
only reduce the acceptability of water for domestic supply but also reduce its attractiveness
for recreational use. The oxidation of certain inorganic compounds may also contribute to
the oxygen demand. There are several measures of oxygen demand. The two most
commonly used are the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Biochemical Oxygen
CHAPTER 11

Demand (BOD) (see section 6.4). COD is the amount of oxygen needed to chemically
oxidize the wastes while BOD is the amount of oxygen needed to biologically oxidize the
waste. BOD has been traditionally used as the most important measure for the strength of
organic pollution. Conventional wastewater treatment reduces the amount of BOD in the
effluent but do not eliminate BOD completely.
Nutrients. Nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus are essential to the growth of living
things. But if they are present in excessive amounts, it causes some organisms to proliferate at

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 311

 the expense of others and grossly disturb the food web. For example, these nutrients in
excessive amounts can stimulate the growth of algae which eventually die and decompose in
turn removing oxygen from water, potentially leading to levels in which aquatic species may
become unsustainable. Algae and decaying organic matter add color, turbidity, odors and
objectionable tastes to the water and diminish its acceptability for domestic use. The process
of nutrient enrichment is called eutrophication and will be discussed in detail in later
sections. Major sources of nitrogen and phosphorus include municipal wastewater
discharges, runoff from animal feedlots, chemical fertilizers and also phosphorus-based
detergents.
In addition to these anthropogenic sources of nutrients, there are also natural sources that
may add nitrogen to the water bodies. Certain bacteria and blue-green algae can directly
obtain nitrogen from the atmosphere. These life forms are abundant in lakes and have high
biological productivity. Certain form of acid rains can also contribute nitrogen to the lakes.
Pathogenic organisms. Microorganisms found in wastewater include bacteria, viruses and
protozoa excreted by diseased persons or animals. If wastes containing these
microorganisms are discharged into surface waters, they render it unfit for drinking and if
they enter the water supply, it can cause epidemic of enormous proportions. With the advent
of chlorination, which began in 1908 in the United States, outbreak of waterborne diseases
has become rare. However, developing countries today are still susceptible to high death
rates from these diseases mostly because of the lack of adequate sanitation facilities. If the
concentration of these pathogenic organisms in the surface water becomes very high, the
water may also be unsafe for swimming, fishing or other recreational uses.

Box 11.2
The State of Buriganga river today
CHAPTER 11

Figure Left: The Department of Environment collects samples of untreated waste

being discharged into the Buriganga river by a factory in Keraniganj. Right: A DoE
official finds 1.45mg oxygen in a litre of Buriganga water (Image source: the Daily Star,
July 5, 2011).

312 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 In Dhaka, an average of 15,000 metric tons of human waste is generated daily. The only waste treatment
plant for the city is located at Pagla in Narayanganj with a capacity of treating 1,20,000 m3 of sewage. It
was installed in 1973-74 and renovated in 1991-92 but can treat sewage at only one-third of its capacity.
The rest of the waste dumped into rivers, canals and other water bodies. Residential areas including
Uttara, Baridhara, Badda, part of Mirpur and Mohammadpur, Dhonia, Shyamoli, Kalyanpur, Banani,
part of Gulshan and Jatrabari and a large area of the city's northern part altogether consisting of 80% area
of Dhaka city remain out of WASA sewerage network. Due to unavailability of sewage connections, a
large number of house-owners link sewage discharge connection directly to storm water drainage line.
Some people illegally connect their sewage line to the drainage line even where sewage network is
available to evade service charges. This results in dumping of untreated waste to rivers and water bodies
in and around the city. Buriganga, once the lifeline of Dhaka city, is now severely polluted as it receives
the major portion of this untreated sewage. Besides this, untreated industrial effluent is discharged from
a cluster of industries along the river. Most industries do not have in-house treatment plants, and even if
some of them had it, they would not use it perhaps to save operation cost in blatant violation of
environmental rules. 500 tanneries in Hazaribagh including 200 large units discharge 4950 m3 of
obnoxious organic wastes every day and recent evidence points out that they are percolating into the
subsurface and polluting the groundwater as well. Also, illegal grabbing of the river has obstructed the
river’s natural flow and exacerbated the situation. Previously the Department of Environment has filed
cases against the factories for environmental pollution under the Bangladesh Environment Protection
Act and fined some of those industries in various degrees, but the industries are still managing to operate
unabatedly through various loopholes of the law. Grassroots movements are in progress initiated by
various concerned groups in Bangladesh to stop pollution and save the Buriganga river.

Suspended solids. Organic or inorganic particles that are carried by the wastewater into
receiving waters are termed suspended solids. When the speed of the water is reduced by
flowing into a pool or a lake, many of these particles settle to the bottom as sediment. In
common usage, the word sediment also includes eroded soil particles which are being
carried by water even if they have not yet settled. Colloidal particles which do not settle
readily are the cause of turbidity found in many surface waters. Organic suspended solids
may also exert an oxygen demand. Inorganic suspended solids are discharged by some
industries but result mostly from soil erosion. As excessive sediment loads are deposited into
lakes and reservoirs, their usefulness is reduced. Even in rapidly flowing streams, sediments
can disrupt ecological habitats of many aquatic species. For domestic water supply, excessive
suspended solids necessitate water treatment at an increased cost.
Salts. All naturally occurring water contains some sort of salt; but the problem arises when
the concentration of salt goes beyond such a level which makes it unsuitable for a particular
purpose. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is a very common and simple measure of salinity in
CHAPTER 11

water. As a rough approximation, freshwater can be considered to be water with less than
1500 mg/L TDS; brackish waters may have TDS values up to 5000 mg/L; saline waters are
those with concentrations above 5000 mg/L. According to Bangladesh Environmental
Conservation Rules (1997), drinking water has a permissible maximum contaminant level
of TDS of 1000 mg/L. High concentration of salts can also damage crops and cause soil
pollution, therefore for irrigation water the permissible level is 2100 mg/L. Industrial

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 313

 discharge often consists of high amount of TDS. For the rivers which are used for irrigation,
the concentration of salts progressively increase downstream as the amount of water
available to dilute the salts becomes lower due to evaporation and diversions and as more
and more salty irrigation drainage water is added to the flow.
Toxic metals. The list of toxic metals (often referred to as heavy metals) includes aluminum,
arsenic, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese,
mercury, nickel, selenium, strontium, thallium, tin, titanium and zinc. Some of these metals,
such as iron, are essential nutrients in our diets, but in higher doses are extremely toxic. The
adverse impacts include nervous system and kidney damage, creation of mutations and
induction of tumors. Lead comes from exhaust of automobiles that use leaded gasoline, zinc
comes from tire wear.
Toxic organic compounds. Many industrial discharges contain toxic metals or toxic
organic substances. Pesticides, also a toxic organic chemical, may be carried into water in the
surface runoff from agricultural areas. Perhaps the most dangerous among these are
chlorinated organic hydrocarbons (organochlorines) (e.g. DDT, aldrin, endrin, heptachlor,
methoxychlor). They not only possess toxic characteristics but also persistent, tend to

Box 11.3
Water Pollution from Textile Dyeing Industries in Bangladesh

Figure Discharge of textile dyeing wastewater into a natural water body (Source:
Ahmed et al. 2012).
Textile is the top foreign exchange earning sector in Bangladesh, at the same time wastewater from
textile dyeing has also become the top polluter of water and soil resources in the country. In Bangladesh,
textile dying industries are grouped into red category that requires extensive Environmental Impact
CHAPTER 11

Assessment (EIA) and installation of treatment facilities to establish textile dyeing (GoB, 1997). But
most of the industries do not have a treatment plants and discharge untreated effluent with very high
pollution potential in water or on land. Some industries have physico-chemical and biological treatment
plants which can reduce BOD, COD and colour to some extent but extended aeration and high dose of
chemicals are required to reduce SS, BOD and COD to acceptable levels. On the other hand, the
dissolved solids in the effluent remain very high. Some industries dilute the effluent by adding fresh
water to meet the effluent quality standards but the total pollution loads discharged in the environment

314 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 remain unchanged. Many of the treatment plants are not operated continuously for high cost of
operation. As a result, severe pollution of water and soil resources around the industrial belt in
Bangladesh due to indiscriminate disposal of wastewater has become a great environmental concern.
Textile dyeing requires huge quantity of water, which is contaminated with large quantities of salt, dye
pigments and dissolved and suspended impurities either derived from fabrics or added for dyeing and
discharged as wastewater. The wastewater from textile dyeing is characterized by high pH, turbidity,
colour, dissolved and suspended solids, BOD and COD. The usual BOD of composite dyeing
wastewater ranges from 300 to 600 mg/L, COD from 350 to 800 mg/L, Suspended Solids from 250 to
350 mg/L and Total Dissolved Solids as high as 3000 mg/L. Treatment of textile wastewater is
relatively difficult and costly. Pollution and public health problems caused by textile dyeing wastewater
have become the focus of the press and environmentalists for a number of years. The department of
Environment as per provisions of ECA (1995) is trying to deal with the matter by setting deadlines for
installing ETP and imposing fines for not operating ETPs but no improvement of situation is visible.
About 100 units out of 300 knit processing industries within Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers &
Export Association (BKMEA) may have installed ETPs. It has been reported in local news media that
some of the dyeing industries are hiding their effluent by pumping it underground. The resulting
pollution of groundwater will have far reaching consequences.
It is not possible to control environmental pollution from dyeing wastewater by the existing liberal
effluent quality standards (EQS) of Bangladesh. The present effluent quality standards were formulated
18 years ago considering the abundance of effluent receiving water (surface water) in Bangladesh. In
recent times, the flow of the existing streams have tremendously reduced in the dry season and on the
other hand, composite dyeing industries have greatly flourished in the country during the last decade.
Moreover, there are no suitable streams in the close vicinity of many factories for disposal by dilution.
The improvement of quality of the industrial effluent is required to prevent pollution of the
environment. The quality of the land around clusters of factories like Export Processing Zones (EPZs)
in Bangladesh is fast deteriorating, even after largely complying with the EQS of Bangladesh (ECR,
1997). Discharge of excessive amount of salt with the effluent is mainly responsible for elevated water
and soil salinity making the land around industrial clusters barren. The combined wastewater
discharged from an industrial cluster is shown in Figure above.
Effective treatment of wastewater from dyeing industries and safe disposal of treated effluent and sludge
are the only options to protect the environment. Chemical coagulation by an appropriate coagulant and
oxidation by a strong oxidizing agent are required to remove colour and biological treatment can reduce
BOD and COD. But these conventional methods cannot reduce salt content of the wastewater.
Advanced treatment methods like Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR), Electro-chemical and Membrane
Bio-filtration (MBR) processes are being used for the treatment of dyeing wastewater.
CHAPTER 11

bioaccumulate. All organics having similar properties are termed POP, Persisting Organic
Pollutants. POPs are prone to long-range transboundary atmospheric transport and
deposition and are likely to cause significant adverse human health or environmental effects
near to and distant from their sources. Government of Bangladesh has signed the Stockholm
Convention on POP on 23 May 2001. As a Party and signatory to the Convention,
Bangladesh is required to take actions to generate awareness of harmful consequences of
POPs, to reduce their releases, and their ultimate elimination. The Stockholm Convention

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 315

 identifies 12 substances as POPs, which include (a) 9 substances used as pesticides, (b)
Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) and (c) Dioxins and Furans. The nine pesticides are
Aldrin, Chlordane, Dieldrin, Endrin, Heptachlor, Mirex, Toxaphone, DDT and
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB).
Heat (thermal pollution). Heat is considered as a pollutant because of the adverse effect it
can have on the oxygen levels and aquatic life in a river. Typically the source of heat in natural
rivers is the discharge of cooling water as it passes through the condensers collecting the
waste heat in power plants. The cooling water, previously withdrawn from the river, may be
subjected to a temperature increase of upto 15°C after it serves to condense the steam. The
discharge of warm water into the river is usually called thermal pollution. Increase in

Box 11.4
Bioaccumulation of DDT

Phytoplankton
Zooplankton Fish eating bird
0.025 ppm
0.123 ppm 124 ppm

Small fish
1.04 ppm
Predatory fish
4.83 ppm

Figure Process of biological magnification. DDT concentrations increase in

organisms higher in the food chain.
DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) is the most well-known organochlorine pesticide which has
been widely used in the United States to control insects that carry diseases such as malaria, typhus and
plague. It was a contributed to literally saving millions of lives and also, terms of human toxicity it was
considered relatively safe. It was its impact on the food chain, rather than human toxicity, which led to its
ban in the United States. It appeared that DDT had two properties which made it particularly harmful in
food chains. Firstly, it was extremely persistent, that is, it lasts in the environment for a long time before it
is broken down into other substances. Secondly, they are quite soluble in lipids which means they tend
CHAPTER 11

to accumulate in fatty tissue. The effect of this is that the organisms at higher trophic levels in the food
chain will have progressively increasing concentrations of DDT accumulated in their tissue. The
concentration in the body is the highest at the top of the food chain where the adverse effects will be
manifested. It was the adverse effect of DDT on the reproductive system of birds that focused attention
to this pesticide. DDT interfered with calcium metabolism of birds, resulting in eggs with shells that are
too thin to support the weight of the parent. This phenomenon in which the concentration of a chemical
increases at higher levels in the food chain is known as biomagnification.

316 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

temperature decreases the solubility of oxygen in water and increase the rate of metabolism
of fish. This changes the ecological balance of fish. Several species of fish adapt well in
warmer waters while several others prefer colder waters. In the outfall region, a certain
species of fish may thrive due to warmer waters but problems may arise if there is a sudden
shift in environmental conditions (e.g.decrease in temperature due to plant shutdown for

Figure 11.4 (a) Thermal effluent having a temperature 8.7°C in excess of the ambient
water river water temperature being discharged in the Sitalakhya River by the
Siddhirganj 210 MW Power Plant in Narayanganj. (b) Thermal pollution from power
plants can be eliminated by using recirculation cooling towers or ponds.

repair). Sudden decrease in temperature may cause fish kills in significant proportions. Since
thermal effluents also reduce the amount of DO available; a river that may accept a certain
sewage load without much adverse effects, could have unacceptably low DO levels when a
power plant is added. Thermal pollution may be controlled by passing the heated water
through a cooling pond or a cooling tower after it leaves the condenser. The heat is dissipated
into the air and the water can then be either discharged to the river or pumped back to the
plant for reuse as cooling water (Figure 11.4 (b))

11.2 Pollutant Discharge Limits

If pollutant discharge continues unabated, rivers and lakes will lose their acceptability for
their intended beneficial use. That is why there are regulatory agencies, whose primary
responsibility is to impose restrictions on the quality of domestic or industrial effluents on
water bodies on the basis of certain guidelines or standards of a particular country. Water
quality standards are therefore necessary to ensure that the appropriate quality of water is
available for a particular use by the consumer. In Bangladesh, the Department of
Environment (DoE) is the main regulatory agency which monitors effluent discharges by
CHAPTER 11

the industries and verify their compliance with the standards stated under the
Environmental Conservation Rules (ECR), 1997. It has the authority to cancel permits or
issue fines to the industries if they find them under violation of the standards. Table 11.2 and
11.3 show the standards for industrial and domestic effluent discharge to water bodies as
stated in the ECR, 1997.

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 317

 11.3 Water Quality Assessment Methods
Chemical assessment. Chemical assessment techniques are well known and involve
regular sampling of water in the natural system and/or at some point in the abstraction and
treatment processes and of most effluents before they are released back into the
environment. The assessment involves regular testing for the presence and concentration of
the major chemical parameters described in Tables11.2 and 11.3.Description of these tests
are available in Standard Methods (2012) and will not be discussed in this chapter.

Table 11.2 Bangladesh Standards for sewage discharge into

surface and inland water bodies.
Parameters Unit Values
BOD mg/l 40
Nitrate mg/l 250
Phosphate mg/l 35
Suspended Solids (SS) mg/l 100
o
Temperature C 30
Coliforms number/100ml 1000
Source:Schedule- 9, Rule-13, Environment Conservation Rules, 1997.

Table 11.3 Bangladesh Standards for industrial effluent

discharge.
Parameters Unit Values
Ammonia-nitrogen (as elementary N) mg/l 50
Ammonia (as free ammonia) mg/l 5
Arsenic (as As) mg/l 0.2
BOD5 at 20oC mg/l 50
Boron mg/l 2
Cadmium (as Cd) mg/l 0.05
Chloride mg/l 600
Chromium (as total Cr) mg/l 0.5
COD mg/l 200
Chromium (as hexavalent Cr) mg/l 0.1
Copper (as Cu) mg/l 0.5
Dissolved oxygen (DO) mg/l 4.5-8
Electro-conductivity (EC) µSiemens/cm 1200
Total dissolved solids mg/l 2100
CHAPTER 11

Fluoride (as F) mg/l 2

Sulfide (as S) mg/l 1
Iron (as Fe) mg/l 2
Total kjeldahl nitrogen (as N) mg/l 100
Lead (as Pb) mg/l 0.1
Manganese (as Mn) mg/l 5
Mercury (as Hg) mg/l 0.01

318 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 Parameters Unit Values
Nickel (as Ni) mg/l 1.0
Nitrate (as elementary N) mg/l 10.0
Oil and grease mg/l 10
Phenolic compounds (as C6H5OH) mg/l 1.0
Dissolved phosphorus (as P) mg/l 8
pH 6-9
Selenium (as Se) mg/l 0.05
Zinc (as Zn) mg/l 5
Total dissolved solids mg/l 2100
Temperature (thermal effluent) °C (summer) 40
°C (winter) 45
Suspended solids mg/l 150
Cyanide mg/l 0.1
Source: Schedule –10, Rule-13, Environment Conservation Rules, 1997

Biological assessment. Environmental stresses alter the physico-chemical environment of

the receiving water body which may disrupt the ecological balance of the system. Thus by
measuring the extent of the ecological upset, the severity of the impact can be assessed. The
sensitivity or tolerance to pollution may vary from species to species. For example, some
species are very sensitive to the dissolved oxygen present in water and will not be found if the
dissolved oxygen falls below a certain level. On the other hand, some species are more
tolerant in this respect. The overall effects of an altered physico-chemical environment are
changes in species composition, changes in dominant groups within species, changes in
behavior, high mortality of sensitive life stages (e.g. eggs) while changes in physiology,
metabolism and morphological deformities may occur. The water quality may be assessed
through field inspection by noting these changes in various species from different trophic
levels and comparing them with those expected in a clear, unpolluted water environment.
There are several methods of assessing water quality using biological indicators which are
described in several texts, e.g. Trivedi, 1981 and Spellerberg, 1991. The advantages and
disadvantages of biological assessment compared to chemical assessment is shown in Table
11.4.

11.4 Oxygen Demand of Wastes

Oxygen-demanding wastes have been a pervasive surface-water problem throughout the
world and its effect on water quality (typically dissolved oxygen) of lakes and streams has
been an issue of particular interest to researchers and engineers. To understand the fate of
oxygen-demanding wastes on rivers, we need to first understand the factors affecting oxygen
CHAPTER 11

consumption during a degradation process. This section describes the nature of different
oxygen demands exerted by organic matter and how we can estimate them.
Oxygen demand of organic matter. When biodegradable organic matter is released into a
body of water, microorganisms, especially bacteria, feed on the wastes, breaking it down into
simpler organic and inorganic substances using up oxygen in the process:

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 319

 Table 11.4 Advantages and disadvantages of different water quality monitoring
techniques.

Realm Performance of Performance of

chemical monitoring biological monitoring
Precision (i.e. pollutant concentration Good Poor
assessment)
Discrimination (i.e. what kind of pollution) Good Poor
Reliability (how representative is a single or Poor Good
limited number of samples)
Measure of ecological effects No Yes
Cost Relatively high Relatively low
Source: From Akolkar et al. 2008

Box 11.5
Macroinvertebrates as Bioindicators of River Water Quality

Figure: Left: Macroinvertebrate sampling sites in several rivers in Bangladesh to

assess the biological environment. Right: Water quality map generated from the
categories of biological indicators for the rivers around Dhaka city. The different
stretches of the river are color-coded as water classes I to V, indicating good to
worse, according to their water quality assessed from the biological indicators.
CHAPTER 11

(Source: Bari et al. 2008).

The species most commonly used for the investigation of river water quality are the larger and more
easily visible invertebrate animals which colonize the substrate of all the rivers. Such animals are
collectively referred as macroinvertebrates, of which the main constituents are young aquatic stage of
certain insects. Within this bottom dwelling community, the sensitivity and tolerance to pollution varies
considerably from species to species. In 2006, a macroinvertebrate sampling programme was

320 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 undertaken in 34 sites in 25 rivers in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh in order to determine the
ecological health of the rivers. This study used Multi-Habitat Sampling (MHS), Rapid field
biomonitoring protocol and classified the rivers in Class I, II, III, IV and V based on ASSESS-HKHbios
score index. The water quality map prepared as shown in the figure above provides a good visual picture
of the pollution status of the river. The water quality map shows the state of the Buriganga river to be the
worst due to effluents discharged from Hazaribagh tannery and other industrial installations along the
bank of the river as wells as untreated sewage disposal from Dhaka city. On the eastern side, the Turag
river has been seen to be extremely polluted. On the northern side, the Tongi khaal has been found to be
extremely polluted mainly because of the wastewater discharged from Tongi industrial area. The upper
reach of Balu river is extremely polluted (Water Quality Class V) due to agricultural runoff. The
condition improves slightly (Water Quality Class III) further downstream before it gets worse again
near its junction with Tongi khaal (Water Quality Class IV) which contributes heavy pollution to the
river. Again in the downstream reach of Balu river, the pollution level increases and it becomes class V.
Before the confluence with Sitalakhya river, the water quality of Balu river improves slightly to class IV
and Sitalakhya river near Kanchpur, the water quality class is III. The Dhaleswari river has been found to
be of water quality class IIIas there is no direct discharge of sewage or effluents. The water quality classes
thus obtained through biomonitoring techniques fairly agree with the recorded physico-chemical
parameters of the respective rivers. (Source: Bari et al. 2008)

Microorganisms (Organic matter) + O2 → CO2 + H2O + New cells + Stable products

The actual BOD (see section 6.4) is less than the theoretical BOD, which is the oxygen
demand determined from the stoichiometric relationship between carbon in the organic
matter and oxygen, due to the incorporation of some of the carbon into new bacterial cells.
Theoretical BOD is of limited usefulness in practice since it considers a particular, single
pollutant with a known chemical formula.
The total amount of oxygen that will be required for biodegradation is an important measure
of the impact that a given waste stream will have on the receiving body of water. While we
could imagine a test in which the oxygen required to completely degrade a sample of waste
would be measured, such a test would require an extended period of time (several weeks),
making it impractical. As a result, it has become standard practice simply to measure and
report the oxygen demand over a shorter, restricted period of 5 days, realizing that the
ultimate demand is considerably higher. The 5-day BOD, or BOD5, is the total amount of
oxygen consumed by microorganisms during the first 5 days of biodegradation. BOD5 was
chosen as the standard value for most purposes because the test was devised by sanitary
engineers in England, where rivers have travel times to the sea of less than 5 days, so there was
no need to consider oxygen demand at longer times. Since there is no other time which is any
CHAPTER 11

more justifiable than 5 days, this value has become firmly entrenched.
Laboratory measurement of BOD5. In its simplest form, a BOD5 test would involve
putting a sample of waste into a stoppered bottle, measuring the concentration of dissolved
oxygen in the sample at the beginning of the test and again 5 days later. The difference in DO
would be the 5-day BOD. Light must be kept out of the bottle to keep algae from adding
oxygen by photosynthesis and the stopper is used to keep air from replenishing DO that has
been removed by biodegradation. To standardize the procedure, the test is run at a fixed

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 321

 temperature of 20°C. Since the oxygen demand of typical waste is several hundred
milligrams per liter, and since the saturated value of DO for water at 20°C is only 9.1 mg/L, it
is usually necessary to dilute the sample to keep final DO above zero. If during the 5 days the
DO drops to zero, then the test is invalid, since more oxygen would have been removed had
more been available.
The 5-day BOD of a diluted sample is given by

11.1

where DOi = the initial dissolved oxygen of the diluted wastewater

DOf = the final DO of the diluted wastewater
P = the dilution fraction
= Volume of wastewater /(Volume of wastewater plus dilution water)
A standard BOD bottle holds 300 mL, so P is just the volume of wastewater divided by 300
mL.
In some cases it is necessary to seed the dilution water with microorganisms to assure that
there is an adequate bacterial population to carry out the biodegradation. In such cases, to
find the BOD of the waste itself, it is necessary to subtract the oxygen demand caused by the
seed from the demand in the mixed sample of waste and dilution water.
To be able to sort out the effect of seeded dilution water from the waste itself, two BOD
CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.5 Bottles specifically designed for incubation of water samples for BOD
analysis. A flared mouth forms a water seal which prevents the drawing of air into the
bottle during incubation. The interior shape of the bottle is such that the entrained air is
sweeped out of the stopper opening. Glass stopper design uses a conical extension to
displace excess sample which further insures no air entrapment in the sample. (Krackeler
Scientific, Inc.).

322 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

bottles must be prepared, one containing just the seeded dilution water and the other
containing the mixture of both the wastewater and seeded dilution water. The change in DO
in the bottle containing just seeded dilution water (called the "blank"), as well as the change
in DO in the mixture are then noted. The oxygen demand of the waste itself (BODw) can then
be determined as follows:
11.2
where BODm = BOD of the mixture of wastewater and seeded dilution water
BODw = BOD of the wastewater alone
BODd = BOD of the seeded dilution water alone
Vw = the volume of wastewater in the mixture
Vd = the volume of dilution water in the mixture
Vm = the volume of the mixture = Vd + Vw
As before, let P equal the fraction of the mixture that is wastewater = Vw/Vm so that (1 – P) is
the fraction of the mixture which is seeded dilution water = Vd/ Vm. Rearranging Eq. (11.2)
gives
11.3

Substituting the definitions of P and (1-P) into Eq. (11.3) gives

11.4

Since BODm = DOi – DOf and BODd = Bi - Bf

Where, Bi = initial DO in the seeded dilution water (blank)
Bf = final DO in the seeded dilution water
The final expression for the BOD of the wastewater itself is

11.5

Example 11.1. Unseeded 5-Day BOD Test. A standard 5-day BOD test is run using a mix
consisting of 3 parts distilled water and 1 part wastewater. The initial DO of the mix is 9.0
mg/L and the DO after 5 days is determined to be 1.0 mg/L. What is the BOD5?
Solution.
The dilution fraction, P = 1/4 = 0.25. Using Eq. (11.1), the 5-day BOD,
CHAPTER 11

= (9.0 – 1.0)/0.25 = 32 mg/L

Example 11.2. A Seeded BOD Test. A mixture consisting of 30 mL of waste and 240 mL
of seeded dilution water has an initial DO of 8.55 mg/L; after 5 days, it has a final DO of 2.40
mg/L. another bottle containing just the seeded dilution water has an initial DO of 8.75
mg/L and a final DO of 8.53 mg/L. What would be the 5-day BOD of the waste?

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 323

 Solution
The dilution factor P is
P = 30/(240 + 30) = 0.11
Using Eq. (11.5)

= 54 mg/L
Factors affecting BOD rate constant. As discussed in section 6.4, the BOD kinetics can be
described as a first-order reaction and the BOD reaction rate constant, k, is a factor that
indicates the rate of biodegradation of wastes in streams. As k increases, the rate at which DO
is consumed also increases. The magnitude of the reaction rate will depend on three factors:
(1) nature of the waste, (2) ability of organisms to utilize the waste and (3) temperature.
Not all naturally occurring organic compounds are degraded at equal rates. The complexity
of the hydrocarbon structure dictates the rate of degradation. Simple sugars and starches are
easily degraded and will, therefore, have a large BOD rate constant. On the other hand
cellulose degrades slowly and will have lower reaction rates. Table 11.5 shows a summary of
some typical BOD rate constants. The lower rate constants for treated sewage compared to
raw sewage result from the fact that easily degradable organics are more completely removed
than less readily degradable organics during wastewater treatment. Again, a particular group
of microorganism may be well suited to degrade certain kinds of organic matter. When such
organic matters are discharged in the receiving streams, this group of microorganism
generally thrives and dominates the microbial population. When BOD is determined in the
laboratory, it is important to have the microorganisms which have adapted to that particular
kind of waste so that rate constants become representative of actual conditions in the river.
Finally, temperature speeds up reaction rates like most biological processes. Ideally, BOD
rate constants should be experimentally determined for the temperature of the receiving
water. But the temperature can vary both temporally (with changing seasons) and spatially
(along different reaches of the river). Therefore, the standard practice is to determine BOD
at a certain temperature (which is 20°C) and adjust the rate constant for the temperature of
the receiving water using Eq. (6.17) (see section 6.4 for details).
Oxygen demand due to nitrification. Many organic compounds (e.g. proteins) contain
not only carbon but also nitrogen that can be oxidized by microorganisms resulting in the
consumption of molecular oxygen. The mechanisms and rate of this oxidation is different
from those of carbon oxidation. Therefore, to separate these processes, the oxygen demand
CHAPTER 11

Table 11.5 Typical values for the BOD rate constant.

sample k (20°C)(day-1)
Raw sewage 0.35-0.70
Well-treated sewage 0.10-0.25
Polluted river water 0.10-0.25
Source: Davis and Cornwell (1985)

324 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

resulting from the oxidation of carbon is usually termed as Carbonaceous BOD (CBOD)
and that resulting from the oxidation of nitrogen is termed as Nitrogenous BOD (NBOD).
When living things die or excrete waste products, nitrogen that was tied to the complex
organic molecules gets released as ammonia by bacteria and fungi. In aerobic environments
nitrite bacteria (Nitrosomonas) convert ammonia to nitrite (NO2- ), and nitrate bacteria
(Nitrobacter) convert nitrite to nitrate (NO3-) through nitrification process (see equations
7.2 and 7.3).
Nitrification is just one part of the biogeochemical cycle for nitrogen, which is shown in
Figure 11.6. As is suggested there, nitrogen exists in many forms as it moves through the
biosphere. In the atmosphere it is principally in the form of molecular nitrogen (N2) and
nitrous oxide (N2O). Nitrogen is first transformed into either ammonia (NH3) or nitrate
(NO3) in the process called nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation occurs during electrical
storms when N2 oxidizes, combines with water, and is rained out as HNO3. Certain bacteria
and blue-green algae are also capable of fixing nitrogen. Under anaerobic conditions, certain
denitrifying bacteria are capable of reducing NO3 back into NO2 and N2, completing the
nitrogen cycle.

Plants Animals

Fixation

Atmospheric
nitrogen Death,
N2 N2O excreta

Lightning
Denitrification

Nitrite Nitrite Ammonia Organic

NO3- NO2 NH3 N

Figure 11.6 Biogeochemical cycle of nitrogen.

However, the process through which organic nitrogen is converted into Ammonia and then
to nitrite and nitrate (nitrification) is the main concern in this section. It appears that this
conversion happens sequentially and it is a matter of days before the rate of oxidation of
ammonia is sufficient enough to create a significant oxygen demand (see Figure 11.7).
CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.8 illustrates the two oxygen demands as they may be exerted in a BOD experiment.
In typical municipal wastes, NBOD does not exert itself for at least 5-8 days, so most 5-day
BOD tests are not affected by nitrification. This lag period is due to the fact that the bacterial
population takes some time to reach a sufficient population for the amount of NBOD
exertion to be significant. This is true for untreated sewage. However, if there is a sufficient
number of nitrifying bacteria present as in treated sewage, NBOD may begin to be exerted
from the very onset (Figure 11.8) and confound measurements of BOD if only CBOD is

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 325

 Figure 11.7 Changes in nitrogen species in polluted water under aerobic conditions
(Adapted from Masters, 2001).

desired. Therefore, it is now an accepted practice to modify wastes in a way (using chemical
inhibitors) that will inhibit nitrification during that 5-day period. The rate constant for
nitrification is also affected by temperature and can be adjusted using Eq. (6.17).
CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.8 Illustrating the carbonaceous and nitrogenous biochemical oxygen demand.

Example 11.3. Quantifying Nitrogenous Oxygen Demand. Some domestic wastewater

has 40 mg/L of nitrogen either in the form of organic nitrogen or ammonia. Assuming that
very few new cells of bacteria are formed during the nitrification of the waste, find
a. The ultimate nitrogenous oxygen demand.
b. The ratio of the ultimate NBOD to the concentration of nitrogen in the waste.

326 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

Solution
a. The equation for the nitrification:
NH3 + 2O2 NO3- + H+ + H2O
The molecular weight of NH3 is 17 (14 + 3 × 1) and the molecular weight of O2 is 32 (2 × 16).
The above reaction indicates that one g-mole of NH3 (17 g) requires two g-moles of O2 (2 ×
32 = 64 g). Since 17 g of NH3 contains 14 g of N, and the concentration of N is 40 mg/L, the
final, or ultimate, NBOD:
NBOD = 40 mgN/L ×(17 g NH3/ 14 g N) ×(64g O2/17 g NH3) = 183 mg O2/L
b. The oxygen demand due to nitrification divided by the concentration of nitrogen in the
waste is
183 mg O2 / 40 mg N= 4.57 mg O2/mg N
The total concentration of organic and ammonia nitrogen in wastewater is known as the
total Kjeldahl nitrogen, or TKN. As was demonstrated in the above example, the
nitrogenous oxygen demand can be estimated by multiplying the TKN by 4.57.
Ultimate NBOD ≈ 4.6 × TKN 11.6
Alternate measures of oxygen demand. Some organic materials, such as cellulose,
phenols, benzene, and tannic acid, resist biodegradation. Others, such as pesticides and
various industrial chemicals, are nonbiodegradable because they are toxic to
microorganisms. The chemical oxygen demand, COD, is a measured quantity that does not
depend either on the ability of microorganisms to degrade the waste or on knowledge of the
particular substances in question (details in section 6.4). However, COD does not
distinguish between the oxygen demand of the organic matter due to biodegradation, and
the chemical oxidation of inert organic matter. Nor does it provide any information on the
rate at which actual biodegradation will take place. The measured value of COD is higher
than BOD, though for easily biodegradable matter the two will be quite similar. In fact, the
COD test is sometimes used as a way to estimate the ultimate BOD. In municipal
wastewaters, COD ≈ 1.6 BOD5.
Although the 5-day BOD is chosen as the standard metric to characterize most wastewater,
the ultimate BOD is actually a better indicator of the total waste strength. This is because
different type of wastewaters having the same BOD5 but different BOD reaction rates will
exhibit a difference in ultimate BOD. This is illustrated in Figure 11.9 for a municipal and an
industrial wastewater. Although both wastewaters have the same BOD5, the industrial
wastewater has a lower reaction rate and hence a higher ultimate BOD, and can be expected
to have a greater impact on the dissolved oxygen in a river.
CHAPTER 11

11.5 Fate of Oxygen Demanding Wastes in Rivers

The amount of dissolved oxygen in water is one of the most commonly used indicators of a
river's health. As DO drops below 4 or 5 mg/L, the forms of life that can survive begin to be
reduced. In nature, clean waters are saturated with oxygen or nearly so. When oxygen-
demanding wastes are discharged into a stream, they undergo aerobic decomposition,

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 327

 Figure 11.9 Comparing the oxygen demand of industrial and municipal wastewater.

Box 11.6
Oxygen-demanding wastes in Sitalakhya River

Figure Spatial variation of Ammonia-Nitrogen, Nitrate-Nitrogen,BOD5 and DO

CHAPTER 11

along Sitalakhya River (Alam et al, 2011).

The water quality of Sitalakhya river is of particular importance not only for ecological and commercial
reasons but also for concerns regarding the supply of safe drinking water. The largest surface water
treatment plant in Bangladesh located at Saidabad draws water from it through the intake at Sarulia
about 400 m downstream of its confluence with BaluRiver to supply drinking water to the residents of
the nation’s capital. In recent years, the water quality of Sitalakhya has been widely studied particularly

328 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 because of the high intensity of industries along its reach. A study conducted during 2008-2009 assessed
the effect of industrial pollution on water quality of the Sitalakhya river. Figure shows the profile of some
significant water quality parameters along the entire reach of the Sitalakhya river during the dry season
when the water quality scenario is the most critical. These profiles indicate a deterioration of water
quality parameters (increased BOD5, NH3 and depleted Dissolved Oxygen) starting from around 30 km
downstream of Ghorashal Bridge. This is because there is a high density of industrial installations on
both sides of the river as well as connections to polluted drainage canals. It may be noted here that, the
increase in BOD5 starting from 30 km downstream of Ghorashal bridge coincides with the starting point
of the depletion of DO levels in the river (i.e. the DO sag curve, described later). The BOD5 levels
eventually come down further downstream near the confluence of Dhaleshwari river and consequently
the DO levels also tend to recover to some extent. Also, high ammonia concentration in the river
(highest near Sarulia, where it threatens the operation of the Saidabad water treatment plant) eventually
is decreased downstream mostly due to dilution. Some conversion from Ammonia to nitrate takes place
as there is an increasing trend in nitrate levels. Since Sitalakhya is not a long river, the residence time of
these pollutants in this river is unlikely to exceed the typical time required for NBOD to fully exert.

depleting the dissolved oxygen resources in the process. This process is called
deoxygenation. Streams and rivers can naturally assimilate biodegradable wastes to some
extent and thus recovering from the effect of pollution without significant or permanent
environmental damage. This capacity for self-purification depends on the strength and
volume of pollutants as wells as the discharge or flowrate of the rivers. It is commonly said
that "the solution to pollution is dilution”. The effects of dilution and the constant flushing
action of the flowing water are obvious factors involved in the waste assimilative capacity of a
stream. But not as obvious, but equally important, is the effect of oxygen transfer between the
air-water interface, a process termed as reaeration. Atmospheric oxygen is constantly being
dissolved through the air-water interface replenishing the DO in the water. Fast-flowing,
shallow, turbulent streams are reaerated more effectively than slow, deep, meandering
streams. This is because in turbulent, shallow streams, the water becomes well-mixed
throughout its depth and there is a constant renewal of air-water interface.

CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.10 The dissolved oxygen sag curve showing the effect of oxygen-demanding
wastes on the DO levels in a stream or river.

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 329

 The rate of deoxygenation is proportional to the available BOD. Since the BOD immediately
after the discharge is the highest and decreases gradually over time, the slope of the
deoxygenation curve will be steep initially and will become gradually milder (see Figure
11.10). On the other hand, the rate of oxygen transfer from the air into the water depends on
the difference between the saturation DO and the actual DO of the water. The larger the
difference is, the faster will be the rate of reaeration. The slope of the reaeration curve
gradually increases as the deoxygenation curve falls (see Figure 11.10). At any given time, the
DO level in the stream is a combined effect of deoxygenation and reaeration. In other words,
the actual DO is equal to the sum of the DO on the deoxygenation curve and the DO on the
reaeration curve. The resultant DO curve will have a dip where the DO is minimum and is
also known as the DO sag curve. Since the product of velocity and time is distance, the
horizontal or x-axis in Figure 11.10 can also be labeled as distance for a given reach of the
stream and the DO curve is practically the profile view of the DO concentrations along the
length of the stream and also called the dissolved oxygen profile.
The purpose of this section is to develop a simplified mathematical tool to predict the spatial
DO concentration in a river system. This is accomplished by performing simple analytical
treatment to the equations describing deoxygenation and reaeration, the two key processes
governing the DO balance in a river. For the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that there is a
continuous discharge of waste at a given location on the river, the waste is uniformly mixed at
any given cross section of river, and also there is no dispersion of wastes in the direction of
flow.
Mixing and dilution. When a point discharge of wastewater enters a flowing stream, the
physical process of mixing and dilution begins immediately. But with the exception of small
turbulent streams, it is unlikely that the pollutants will be thoroughly mixed in the stream
flow at or near the point of discharge. Instead, a waste plume forms, as illustrated in Figure
11.11. The length of this gradually widening mixing zone depends on the channel geometry,
the flow velocity, and the design of the discharge pipe.
In water pollution control, it is often necessary to predict the BOD concentrations and DO
levels downstream from a sewage discharge point. One of the first computations needed for
CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.11 Dilution of pollutants from a point source, such as a sewage treatment
plant, occurs within the mixing zone of the stream.

330 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

this involves the effect of dilution. Assuming that the pollutant is completely mixed in the
streamflow (at a point just below the end of the mixing zone), the diluted concentration of
any water quality parameter can be calculated using the following mass balance equation:

11.7

Where, Cd = diluted concentration

Cs = original concentration
Cw = concentration in the wastewater
Qs = stream discharge
Qw = waste discharge
Deoxygenation. As mentioned earlier, the rate of deoxygenation at any point in the river is
assumed to be proportional to the BOD remaining at that point. That is,
Rate of deoxygenation = kdLt 11.8
-1
where kd = the deoxygenation rate constant (day )
Lt = the BOD remaining t (days) after the wastes enter the river (mg/L)
Substituting Eq. (6.14), which gives BOD remaining at any time t, into Eq. (11.8) gives
Rate of deoxygenation = 11.9
where L0 is the BOD of the mixture of streamwater and wastewater at the point of discharge
estimated using Eq.(11.7)
The deoxygenation rate constant kd is often assumed to be the same as the (temperature
adjusted) BOD rate constant k obtained in a standard, laboratory BOD test. For deep, slowly
moving rivers, this seems to be a reasonable approximation, but for turbulent, shallow,
rapidly moving streams, the approximation is less valid. Such streams have deoxygenation
constants that can be significantly higher than the values determined in the laboratory.
In general, BOD is exerted more rapidly in a river because of turbulent mixing, larger number
of “seed” organisms, and BOD removal by organisms in the stream bed as well as by those
suspended in the water. A method has been developed to estimate kd from k using the
characteristics of the stream (Bosko, 1966):

11.10
-1
where kd = deoxygenation coefficient at 20 °C (day )
k = BOD rate constant at 20 °C (day-1)
CHAPTER 11

u = average stream velocity (m/s)

H = average stream depth (m)
η = bed activity coefficient
The bed activity coefficient may vary from 0.1 for stagnant or deep water to 0.6 or more for
rapidly flowing streams. Adjustments to the deoxygenation rate constant for temperatures
other than 20°C can be made using Eq. (6.17).

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 331

 Example 11.4 Downstream BOD. A municipal wastewater treatment plant discharges
1.2 m3/s of treated effluent having an ultimate BOD of 60.0 mg/L into a stream that has a
flow of 9.3 m3/s and a BOD of its own equal to 6.0 mg/L. The deoxygenation constant kd is
0.20/day.
a. Assuming complete and instantaneous mixing, estimate the ultimate BOD of the
river just downstream from the outfall.
b. If the stream has constant cross section so that it flows at a fixed speed equal to 0.30
m/s, estimate the BOD of the stream at a distance 40,000 m downstream.
Solution
a. The BOD of the mixture of effluent and stream water can be found using Eq. (11.7):

mg/L

b. At a speed of 0.30 m/s, the time required for the waste to reach a distance 30,000 m
downstream would be

s = 1.54 days

So, the BOD remaining at that point, 40 km downstream, would be

= 8.96 mg/L

Reaeration. The rate at which oxygen is replenished is proportional to the difference

between the actual DO in the river at any given location, and the saturated value of dissolved
oxygen:
Rate of reaeration = 11.11
-1
where kr = reaeration constant (time )
DOs = saturated value of dissolved oxygen
DO = actual dissolved oxygen at a given location in the river
The reaeration constant kr is very much dependent on the particular conditions in the river. A
fast moving, shallow stream will have a much higher reaeration constant than a sluggish
stream or a pond. Many attempts have been made to empirically relate key stream
parameters to the reaeration constant, with the most commonly used formulation being the
following (O'Connor and Dobbins, 1958):

11.12
CHAPTER 11

where kr = reaeration coefficient at 20 °C (day-1)

u = average stream velocity (m/s)
H = average stream depth (m)
Typical values of the reaeration constant kr for various bodies of water are given in Table
11.6. Adjustments to the reaeration rate constant for temperatures other than 20°C can be
made using Eq. (6.17) but with a temperature coefficient θ equal to 1.024

332 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

The solubility of oxygen in water (DOs) varies with temperature, barometric pressure and
salinity. Table 11.7 gives representative values of the solubility of oxygen in water at various
temperatures and chloride concentrations.
Table 11.6 Typical reaeration constants for various water bodies.

Water body Range of kr at 20°C (base e)

(day-1)
Small ponds and backwaters 0.10-0.23
sluggish streams and large lakes 0.23-0.35
Large streams of low velocity 0.35-0.46
Large streams of normal velocity 0.46-0.69
Swift streams 0.69-1.15
Rapids and waterfalls >1.15
Source : Tchobanoglous and Schroeder (1985)

DO sag curve. As illustrated in Figure 11.10, the DO sag curve represents the resultant effect
of deoxygenation and reaeration. Therefore the equation describing the DO sag curve (or
the DO sag equation) is derived from the superposition of the equations describing
deoxygenation and reaeration. In practice, the DO sag equation is described using oxygen
deficit rather than dissolved oxygen concentration to make it easier to solve the integral that
results from the mass balance. The oxygen deficit (D) is defined by the amount by which the
actual dissolved oxygen concentration is less than the saturation value:
11.13
The saturation value of oxygen for a particular temperature and salinity is derived from Table
11.7. The term initial DO deficit is used to define the DO at the beginning of the sag curve
where the waste discharge mixes with the river. The initial deficit is calculated as the
difference between the saturated DO and the concentration of DO after mixing (Equation
11.7)
Table 11.7 Solubility of oxygen in water (mg/L) at 1 atm pressure.
Chloride concentration in water (mg/L)
Temperture(°C) 0 5000 10000 15000
0 14.62 13.73 12.89 12.10
5 12.77 12.02 11.32 10.66
10 11.29 10.66 10.06 9.49
15 10.08 9.54 9.03 8.54
20 9.09 8.62 8.17 7.75
CHAPTER 11

25 8.26 7.85 7.46 7.08

30 7.56 7.19 6.85 6.51
Source: Thomann and Mueller (1987)

Therefore, combining the two equations (11.9) and (11.11) yields the following mass
balance equation which describes the rate of increase of the oxygen deficit:
Rate of increase of the deficit = Rate of deoxygenation - Rate of oxygenation (reaeration)

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 333

 11.14

Integrating Eq. (11.14), the equation for the DO sag curve can be obtained (graphically
shown in Figure 11.12)

11.15

Eq. (11.15) is the classic Streeter-Phelps oxygen-sag equation first described in 1925. In this
equation, D0 is the initial DO deficit and t represents the time of travel in the stream from the
point of discharge to the point in question downstream.
If the stream has constant cross-sectional area, and it is traveling at a speed u, then time and
distance downstream are related by
x = ut 11.16
where x = distance downstream
u = stream velocity
t = elapsed time between discharge point and distance x downstream
And Eq. (11.15) can be rewritten as:

11.17

Subtracting the oxygen deficit, given by (11.15) or (11.17), from the saturation value DO,
gives DO as a function of time or distance downstream. A plot of this DO is given in Figure
11.12. As can be seen in the figure, the stretch of the river immediately downstream of the
discharge point (x = 0 or t = 0) oxygen is depleted at a faster rate than aeration can replace
CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.12 The Streeter-Phelps oxygen sag curve.

334 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

causing a dip in the DO curve. After a certain point in time or distance, the DO reaches a
minimum. At this point, which is called the critical point, the rate of deoxygenation equals
the rate of reaeration. Beyond the critical point, reaeration exceeds deoxygenation and the
stream naturally recovers.
Zones of pollution. The DO sag curve resulting from a point source of pollution divides the
stream into four relatively distinct zones which are illustrated in Figure 11.13. The first is the
zone of degradation which occurs just below the location where the outfall sewer meets the
river. In this zone fish population shows an increasing trend with the increase in the number
of protozoa which feed on bacteria but gradually declines as the dissolved oxygen decreases.
The river becomes turbid and dark in color with floating solids and other visual evidences of
pollution. Dissolved oxygen drops rapidly and anaerobic decomposition starts at the bottom
deposits of settable organics. In the bottom, sludge forms, which will contain redish worms
and earth worms etc. In the case of extreme pollution, the zone may become devoid of
oxygen and anaerobic decomposition starts. This is called the zone of active decomposition or
septic zone. Sludge decomposition starts forming scum at the surface, objectionable odor by
hydrogen sulphide becomes prominent and color of water becomes darkish. Fungi will
disappear giving way to anaerobic bacteria. Higher forms of life is confined to sludge worms,
rat tailed maggots, psychoda etc. Other higher forms of aquatic lives or desirable species
either die or migrate out of the area. After most of the organics have been decomposed by the
microbes in the water, the rate of reaeration will exceed the rate of deoxygenation, the
dissolved oxygen increases towards its saturation value and the zone of recovery begins. This
zone is characterized by gradually clearing water with no offensive odors with desirable
aquatic species reappearing. The number of bacteria is diminished while protozoa, rotifer
and crustacea populations are increased. When the organic loading is low or there is enough
dilution, the zone of recovery may progress immediately after the zone of degradation
without a zone of active decomposition. Following the zone of recovery is the zone of clear
water. In this zone the natural aquatic ecosystem of the stream is restored. Dissolved oxygen
content will be approaching closer to the saturation values, diverse species of aquatic

CHAPTER 11

Figure 11.13 Pollution and self-purification of stream and changes in the aquatic
ecology by the disposal of sewage/industrial wastewater.

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 335

 organisms such as clear water algae will thrive which will use the stable inorganic nutrients
remaining in the water. Higher form of aquatic lives will also be present. In other words, the
stream has recovered its original quality through the process of self-purification. Additional
point discharges along the reach will alter this model of pollution zones but nevertheless, this
pollution model remains invaluable in understanding stream pollution and proposing
technical solutions to the problem.
Computation of minimum DO. It is important to be able to predict the minimum
dissolved oxygen level in a polluted stream or river and where it occurs. For example, if a new
sewage treatment plant is to discharge its effluent into a stream, it is possible that
conventional (secondary) treatment levels will not remove enough BOD to prevent
excessively low DO downstream. To determine if some form of advanced treatment is
required to preserve the water quality of the river, it is necessary to compute the minimum
DO caused by the sewage effluent and to compare it to the allowable limits for a particular
beneficial use.
The time to critical point (tc)can be found by differentiating Eq. (11.7), setting it equal to
zero and solving it for t:

11.18

The maximum deficit can then be found by substituting the value obtained for the critical
time in Eq. (11.15).
Example 11.5 Oxygen Sag Curve. A municipal wastewater treatment plant discharges 0.2
m3/s of treated effluent having BOD5 of 50.0 mg/L and DO of 2 mg/L into a stream that has a
flow of 0.45 m3/s and a BOD5 of 2 mg/L and DO of 8 mg/L. The temperature of the river is
25°C. The deoxygenation constant kd is 0.23/day at 20°C. The stream has a depth of 2.6 m
and the average stream velocity is 0.2 m/s.
a. Find the critical distance downstream at which DO is a minimum.
b. Find the minimum DO.
CHAPTER 11

Solution:
The BOD and DO of effluent and stream can be found using Eq. (11.7)

mg/L

336 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 = mg/L

Ultimate BOD of the stream, = 24.6 mg/L

The saturation value of DO at 25°C is given as 8.26 mg/L (from Table 11.6), so the initial
deficit would be
= 2.06 mg/L
To estimate the reaeration constant we can use the O’Connor and Dobbin’s relationship
given in Eq. (11.12)

= 0.4 day-1

Adjusting the reaeration and deoxygenation constants for stream temperature (using Eq
6.17):
= 0.45 day-1
= 0.29 day-1

a. Using Eq. (11.18) we can find the time at which the deficit is maximum

= 2.45 days

The critical distance downstream would be

x = utc= 0.2 m/s × 3600 s/hr × 24 hr/day × 2.45 days = 42,336 m
b. The maximum deficit can be found from Eq. (11.15)

= 7.78 mg/L
So the minimum value of DO will be the saturation value minus this maximum deficit:
CHAPTER 11

DOmin = 8.26 – 7.78 = 0.48 mg/L

Effect of temperature on DO sag curve.The effect of temperature on DO sag curve is
important particularly in cases where thermal effluents are involved. The rate of
deoxygenation increases while the solubility of oxygen decreases with increase in
temperature. The combined effects of these are two folds: (1) the critical DO reduces and
(2) the critical DO is reached at an earlier time (or distance). Thus a stream that may have

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 337

 sufficient DO in a colder period may have unacceptably low DO in a warmer season. Figure
11.14 shows this potential adverse impact associated with a change in seasonal temperature.
Effect of NBOD. So far the effect of carbonaceous BOD has been considered in the DO sag

Figure 11.14 At higher temperature the minimum DO is lowered and occurs at a location
closer to the discharge source.

curve. However in some cases the nitrogenous BOD may have similar impact on DO levels.
Nitrogenous BOD can be incorporated into the DO sag curve by adding an additional term
to Eq. (11.15):

11.19

where kn = the nitrogenous deoxygenation rate constant (day-1)

Ln = ultimate NBOD after waste and river have mixed (mg/L)
With the additional term for NBOD, it is not possible to find the critical point analytically as
in Eq. (11.18). It must be found by trial and error solution of Eq. (11.19).
Multiple point sources.The classical DO sag curve assumes that there is only one point
source discharge of waste into the river. In reality, there may be multiple point sources.
Multiple point sources can be handled by dividing the river into multiple reaches, with each
of the point sources located at the beginning of each reach. The oxygen level and residual
BOD can be calculated at the end of each reach which will be subsequently used to determine
the initial conditions (parameters D0 and L0 of Eq. (11.15)) of the following reach. Dividing
the river into reaches is also necessary if there are changes in flow regime (e.g. changes in
aeration due to depth changes due to dredging, installation of dams etc.). Figure 11.15 shows
CHAPTER 11

an application of the DO sag equation for Buriganga river for multiple point sources.
Other factors affecting DO levels. The oxygen-sag curve is affected by a number of other
factors besides those already discussed. If there are large deposits of organic matter in river
sediments, they shall exert their own oxygen demand. These organic matters can be natural
deposits of leaves, dead aquatic plants or can be sludge deposits from wastewaters receiving
little or no treatment. Decomposition of these organic matters will utilize the oxygen
resources in the overlying water column and if their oxygen demand becomes significant,

338 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

Figure 11.15 Application of the Streeter-Phelps DO sag equation in computing the DO of
Buriganga river for multiple point sources. Curve A is the present predicted dry flow
profile with observed river sampling results. Curve B is the expected dry flow DO profile
after implementation of pollution control measures (Ahmed and Mohammed, 1988).

they must be included in the water quality model. Algae and aquatic plants can add DO
during the daytime hours while photosynthesis is occurring, but deplete the DO at night for
respiration. The net effect is a diurnal variation in DO that can lead to elevated levels of DO
in the late afternoon and lower levels at night. Plant growth is usually highest in the summer
when flows are low and temperatures are high, so that large nighttime respiration
requirements can coincide with the worst cases of oxygen depletion from BOD exertion. To
properly model all of these effects and their interactions is an exceedingly difficult task.
Sophisticated water quality models, available commercially as software packages, rely on
computers to simulate all these interactions and can predict water quality parameters
relatively accurately. However, the simplified model presented above can serve as a first
approximation to reality.
Application of the DO curve in water quality management. The DO sag curve can be
used to assess the adequacy of water treatment facilities or to determine the location of an
effluent discharge outfall. DO standards are generally set to protect the aquatic species in a
river or to make the river useful for a particular purpose. For a known waste discharge and a
known set of river hydromorphological characteristics, the DO sag equation can be applied
to find the DO at the critical point. If this value is higher than the standard, then the river has
sufficient assimilation capacity. If this value goes below the standard then additional
management measures are required. Usually the environmental engineer operating the
treatment plant has control over two parameters, L0 and D0. By increasing the efficiency of
CHAPTER 11CHAPTER 11

the treatment process or by adding additional treatment steps, the BOD of the wastewater
can be reduced and thereby reducing L0. Often, the stream quality can be improved by
aerating the wastewater and bringing it close to saturation prior to discharge and thereby
reducing the initial DO deficit of the mixed stream (D0). If none of these work to meet the
standards, alternate options are to be sought and these include building structures across
rivers to promote aeration, looking for alternate outfall locations where dissolved oxygen
levels are higher etc.

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 339

 When using the DO sag equation, it is important to determine the adequacy of management
strategies under the worst case scenario (using the conditions that will cause the lowest DO
concentration). Usually these conditions occur when the flow of the river is low and
temperatures are high. A frequently used criterion is the “10-year, 7-day low flow,” which is
the recurrence interval of the average low flow for a 7-day period estimated using the partial
duration series technique. Low river flows reduce dilution of wastewater, thereby increasing
L0 and D0. The value of kr is usually reduced by low flow because of smaller flow velocities.
Also in higher temperatures, kd is increased and DO saturation is decreased. The simulation
of DO under these circumstances will be the worst possible condition of the stream.

11.6 Water Quality in Lakes and Reservoirs

The pollution of natural lakes or conservation reservoirs poses problems that are somewhat
different from the problems caused by pollution of streams or rivers. This is primarily
because of the difference in physical characteristics between lakes and streams. Water in a
stream is constantly in motion and providing a flushing action for incoming pollutants. But
in lakes, apart from its internal circulations, water is relatively still and retained for longer
periods of time. In some cases, pollutants discharged into a lake can remain there for many
years. Seasonal temperature changes also affect the water quality in lakes and reservoirs.
In streams, organic pollutants affect the oxygen profile. In lakes, water quality may be more
dependent on plant nutrients than on organics from sewage. Phosphorus and nitrogen are
the most critical plant nutrients. When pollutants containing phosphorus and nitrogen
compounds accumulate in a lake, rooted aquatic plants and free-floating algae may grow
profusely. This excessive growth, known as algal blooms, forms slimy mats that float on the
lake surface(Figure 11.16 (a)). They are unsightly and, along with the thick growths of
weeds that develop along the shore, they interfere with boating, swimming, and fishing and
diminish the quality of the lake for recreational purpose. Although algae tend to grow very
quickly under high nutrient availability, they are short-lived and their death results in high
concentration of organic matter which starts to decay. The decay process consumes
dissolved oxygen in the water. Without sufficient dissolved oxygen in the water, aquatic lives
may die off in large numbers. Some algae can release toxins which can also kill fish in massive
numbers (Figure 11.16 (b)). If the lake water is used for water supply, the algae may clog the
filters in the treatment facility and require additional measures for cleaning. This may
increase the cost of treatment. Furthermore, algae impart undesirable taste and odor to the
water and additional chemicals may be required to make the water more palatable.
The algae and aquatic weeds eventually die and settle to the bottom of the lake, where they
are decomposed by bacteria and protozoa. This exerts an oxygen demand on the water
column and may deplete the DO in parts of the lake. Decaying plants, along with silt carried
CHAPTER 11

into the lake by overland runoff and feeder streams, gradually accumulate in significant
amounts as sediment at the lake bottom. This makes the lake shallower and can alter the
ecological environment of the lake including a shift in aquatic species.
A knowledge of the lake systems is essential to understand the role of nutrients in
determining the lake water quality. This section describes the natural life-cycle of a lake and
the characteristics of a typical lake environment and how seasonal variations and nutrient

340 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

Figure 11.16 (a) A spectacular “red tide” bloom (non-toxic) of Noctilucascintillans in New
Zealand. (Photo by M. Godfrey) (b) Dead fish from a Kareniabrevis bloom in Texas. At
high concentrations, toxins produced by this organism can cause massive fish kills.
(Photo by Brazosports) (Image source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute).

Box 11.7
Algal bloom in the Bay of Bengal and its human health implications
Using satellite measurements, such as the
Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS),
researchers can identify algal blooms in the
ocean all over the world and quantify algal
biomass from the color intensity. The figure
shows a CZCS image for the Bay of Bengal
taken in October, 1982 showing algal blooms
along the coast triggered by the nutrient
loading brought to the bay by the major rivers
and their tributaries. These annual algal
blooms are characteristic of coastal areas near
densely populated cities. Recent
investigations revealed that the emergence of
CHAPTER 11

phytoplankton in the Bay of Bengal is

correlated with the occurrence of cholera
outbreaks in coastal regions and other cities in
Figure: A CZCS image showing the ocean color Bangladesh. Vibrio cholerae, the bacteria
of Bay of Bengal responsible for cholera disease has been
known to associate with phytoplankton and it is likely that the bacterial populations in inland and coastal
waters also thrive during the time of algal blooms. The cholera outbreaks in this region might also include

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 341

 other factors which are complex and difficult to quantify. Therefore, although the relationship of several
climatic factors as well as algal blooms and cholera have been found to be significant, developing the
most precise predictive model for cholera outbreak in this region is still a challenge and is a field of active
research. (Source: www.nasa.gov)

loading can affect these characteristics. Emphasis will be given on the effect of phosphorus in
lakes and phosphorus loading management strategies because phosphorus is usually the
limiting nutrient in such environments.
Eutrophication and lake productivity. Eutrophication is a natural process in which lakes
gradually become shallower and more productive through the introduction and cycling of
nutrients. A lake's productivity may be determined by measuring the amount of algal growth
that can be sustained by the available nutrients. Most lakes start out geologically as deep,
cold, clear bodies of water. At this stage, they are called oligotrophic lakes. They usually have a
sand or rock bottom, very few nutrients, a very low level of productivity due to the scarcity of
nutrients and high levels of oxygen. Over the years, nutrients slowly accumulate and various
forms of aquatic lives appear. Silty sediments begin to form at the bottom as the lake passes
through a mesotrophic stage of existence. The eutrophic stage of a lake's life cycle is
characterized by a relatively shallow and warmer body of water, with enough nutrients to
support large populations of plants and diverse aquatic lives and relatively low levels of
oxygen. In a eutrophic lake, there are frequent algal blooms, as previously described, and at
certain times of the year the water at the bottom may be devoid of dissolved oxygen.
Although a more productive lake usually will have a higher fish population, the number of the
most desirable fish may decline. Table 11.8 summarizes the differences between
oligotrophic and eutrophic lakes. Further aging or eutrophication leads to what is called a
senescent lake, characterized by thick deposits of organic silts and very high nutrient levels.
Senescent lakes are very shallow, with much rooted emergent vegetation growing

Table 11.8 General characteristics of eutrophic and oligotrophic lakes.

Character Eutrophic Oligotrophic

Basin shape Broad and shallow Narrow and deep
Lake substrate Fine organic salt Stones and inorganic silt
Lake shoreline Weedy Stony
Light penetration low high
Water color Yellow or green Green or blue
Chlorophyll-a concentration (µg/L) >15 0.3 – 2.5
Total P (ppb) 10 - 30 <1 – 5
Total N (ppb) 300 - 650 <1 – 200
CHAPTER 11

Oxygen High at the surface, low under High

the thermocline
Phytoplankton Few species, high numbers Many species, low numbers
Zooplankton Few species, high numbers Many species, low numbers
Macroinvertebrates Many species, high numbers Moderate species, low numbers
Fish Many species Few species
Source: Adapted from Kiely, 1998

342 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

throughout the lake. Eventually, what was once a lake will become a marsh as natural
geological and ecological processes continue. The aging of a lake is illustrated in Figure
11.17.

Figure 11.17 The different stages of the life cycle of a lake.

The aging process of the lake is natural and inevitable and lake eutrophication, from the
oligotrophic through the senescent stages, takes many thousands of years. It is an
exceedingly slow process. But many people use the term eutrophication synonymously with
pollution in reference to lakes. To eliminate the ambiguity, the term cultural eutrophication
is often used in this regard. Cultural eutrophication is caused when human activity accelerates
these naturally occurring processes where excess nutrients are added from fertilizers or
sewage input leads to pollution. Similarly, damming a river leads to concentration of organic
matter upstream of the dam and can lead to enriched, lake-like conditions with increased
primary production. The Kaptai Lake located upstream of the Karnaphuli river in
Bangladesh is such a manmade lake.
Eutrophic lakes are necessarily polluted, but pollution contributes to eutrophication. Water
quality management in lakes is primarily concerned with slowing eutrophication to at least
the natural rate. This is generally accomplished by controlling phosphorus. To understand
why this is so, it is necessary to understand the factors contributing to algal growth and why
phosphorus is the limiting nutrient.
The role of phosphorus in eutrophication.There are many factors that control the rate of
primary production in a lake, including the availability of sunlight to power the
photosynthetic reactions and the concentration of nutrients required for growth.The
amount of light that can penetrate through the water to aid the photosynthesis reactions is
CHAPTER 11

related to the transparency of the water, which is in turn a function of the level of
eutrophication. An oligotrophic lake may allow sunlight to penetrate to considerable depths
(~ 100 m or more), while eutrophic lakes may be so murky that photosynthesis is limited to a
thin layer of water very near the surface. While the amount of sunlight available can be a
limiting factor in algal growth, it is not something that one would imagine controlling as a
way to slow eutrophication. Since nutrient stimulation by human activity is the prime cause
of cultural eutrophication, restricting the available nutrients to control cultural

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 343

 eutrophication is a more feasible option. All algae require macronutrients such as carbon,
nitrogen, and phosphorus, and micronutrients such as trace elements and the lack of any one
nutrient will essentially limit the total algal population.
Among the nutrients required for algal growth, nitrogen and carbon can be derived mostly
from natural sources. For example, carbon is derived from carbon dioxide dissolved in water
which is pretty much always available and since the atmosphere is virtually an inexhaustible
source of this gas. Although nitrogen in lakes is usually in the form of nitrate (NO3-) which
comes from external sources by way of inflowing streams or groundwater as a result of
human activities, the atmosphere itself is an unending repository of nitrogen gas. Some
photosynthetic microorganisms can also fix nitrogen gas from the atmosphere directly by
converting it to organic nitrogen. In lakes the most important nitrogen-fixing
microorganisms are photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria, formerly known as blue-
green algae because of the pigments they contain. Because of their nitrogen-fixing ability,
cyanobacteria have a competitive advantage over green algae when nitrate and ammonium
concentrations are low but other nutrients are sufficiently abundant. Therefore, controlling
the Carbon and Nitrogen inputs is practically not feasible since algae can find a way to
proliferate even without the inputs generated from human activities. On the other hand,
Phosphorus in lakes originates from external sources only and is taken up by algae in the
inorganic form (PO43-) and incorporated into organic compounds. The relative amounts of
nitrogen and phosphorus that are required for algal growth can be estimated from
stoichiometric considerations using the general algal photosynthesis equation:
106 CO2 + 16 NO3- + HPO42- + 122 H2O + 18 H+ → C106 H263O110 N16 P + 138 O2
The ratio of the weights of nitrogen to phosphorus in this algae would be

For a first approximation, it takes about 7 times more nitrogen than phosphorus to produce a
given amount of algae. Accounting for variations in plant stoichiometry, however, N/P
ratios in a body of water over 20 generally indicate that phosphorus is the limiting nutrient,
whereas N/P ratios of 5 or less reflect nitrogen limited systems.
Of all the nutrients, only phosphorus is not readily available from the atmosphere or the
natural water supply. For this reason, phosphorus is deemed the limiting nutrient in lakes.
The amount of phosphorus controls the quantity of algal growth and therefore the
productivity of lakes. It typically takes only a concentration of about 0.02 mg/L of inorganic
phosphorus to cause algal blooms in a lake; the inorganic nitrogen concentration can be
more than 10 times that level. On the other hand, even with very high nitrogen levels, if
phosphorus concentrations are kept below 0.02 mg/L, excessive growths of algae usually do
CHAPTER 11

not occur.
There is a direct correlation between the phosphorus concentration and chlorophyll a, one
of the green pigments involved in photosynthesis and generally used as a proxy to algal
concentration in the water body. The empirical relationship is given by:
log (Chlorophyll a) = -1.09+1.46 log PT 11.20

344 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

where, Chlorophyll a = concentration of chlorophyll a, mg/m3
PT = total phosphorus concentration, mg/m3
A simple phosphorus balance in a lake. Since phosphorus is the most common limiting
nutrients for lake eutrophication, research in the past few decades mostly centred around its
availability and significance in the lake environment. An idealized lake model is shown in
Figure 11.18. Phosphorus can enter the lake from a variety of sources, including the
incoming stream flow, runoff from adjacent lands, and industrial or municipal point sources.
It is removed by both settling into sediments and by flowing out with the stream flow leaving
the lake.

Figure 11.18 A simplified phosphorus model for a lake.

If we assume that the lake is well mixed, and that steady-state conditions prevail, we can write
the following mass balance equation for phosphorus incorporating the above mentioned
two competing processes:
Rate of addition of P = Rate of removal of P
S = QP + VsAP 11.21
where S = the rate of addition of phosphorus from all sources (g/s)
P = the concentration of phosphorus (g/m3)
Q = the stream outflow rate (m3/s)
vs = the phosphorus settling rate (m/s)
A = the surface area of the lake (m2)
The steady-state concentration of Phosphorus is therefore,

11.22
CHAPTER 11

The settling rate vs is an empirically determined quantity that is difficult to predict with any
confidence. Thomann and Mueller (1987) suggest that lakes have a settling rate of
approximately 3-30 m/year.
Example 11.6. Phosphorus loading in a lake. Consider a lake with 200 × 106 m2 of surface
area for which the only source of phosphorus is the effluent from a wastewater treatment
plant. The effluent flow rate is 0.45 m3/s and its phosphorus concentration is 10.0 mg/L (=

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 345

 10.0 g/m3). The lake is also fed by a stream having 30 m3/s of flow with no phosphorus. If the
phosphorus settling rate is estimated to be 10 m/year.
(a) Estimate the average phosphorus concentration in the lake.
(b)What level of phosphorus removal at the treatment plant would be required to keep
the average lake concentration below 0.010 mg/L?
Solution
(a) The phosphorus loading from the wastewater treatment plant
S = (10 × 0.5) = 5 g/s
This is the total phosphorus loading in the lake.
The flow rate out of the lake would be the sum of the inlet stream flow and the effluent flow.
Q = (30 + 0.5) = 30.5 m3/s

The estimated settling rate is: vs = = 3.17×10-7 m/s

Using Eq. (11.22), the steady-state phosphorus concentration would be

= = 0.053 mg/L

This is above the 0.01 mg/L limit which is suggested as an acceptable concentration.
(b) To reach 0.01 mg/L, the total phosphorus loading must be
= = 0.94 g/s
The wastewater is currently contributing 5 g/s of phosphorus. There is need for 81 per cent
phosphorus removal.
Thermal stratification in lakes. Nutrients stimulate algal growth, and the subsequent
death and decay of that algae can lead to oxygen depletion. This oxygen depletion problem
can be exacerbated by certain physical characteristics of the lake such as thermal
stratification.
An important property of water is that density is greatest at approximately 4°C – water above
or below this temperature floats on water at 4°C. Also, warmer water floats on cooler water.
A lake warmed by the sun during the summer will tend to have a layer of warm water floating
on top of the denser, colder water below. Conversely, in the winter, if the lake's surface drops
below 4°C, it will create a layer of cold water that floats on top of the more dense, 4°C water
below. During the year, as the water body warms and cools seasonally, a changing
CHAPTER 11

temperature profile along the depth emerges. In winter, temperatures are relatively uniform
throughout the lake and any wind action can practically mix the lake water from top to
bottom. Progressing through Spring and Summer, the surface of the water starts to get
heated up and the density differences between surface water and the water nearer to the
bottom inhibit vertical mixing in the lake. As temperature increases, discontinuity becomes
more pronounced until the water body is fully stratified into three parts: a warm epilimnion

346 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

on top, a cold hypolimnion at the bottom and a narrow region in between, called the
thermocline, where the temperature changes rather sharply with depth. Figure 11.19 shows
the stratification that typically occurs in a deep lake, in the temperate zone, during the
summer. Thermocline creates a barrier preventing the two water layers above and below
from being mixed up by the surface wind action.

Figure 11.19 Thermal stratification of a lake showing winter and summer stratification
temperature profiles.

The extent of stratification in lakes can be quantified by their densiometric Froude number
(F):

11.23

Where, ρ0 = reference density

∆ρ = density change over depth D
If FD> 0.32 → no stratification
0.01 <FD< 0.32 → moderately stratified
FD< 0.01 → strongly stratified
Example 11.7. Stratification of a lake. Determine the stratification category for a lake if
its length by width by depth is 10 km × 2 km × 25 m. The summer discharge is 10 m3/s. The
surface temperature in the summer is 25°C.
Solution
CHAPTER 11

ρsurface = 997 kg/m3

ρ0 = 1000 kg/m3

= = 2.3´ 10-4<< 0.01

Therefore, the lake is strongly stratified.

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 347

 Thermal stratification and lake water quality. Thermal stratification in lakes has major
effects on both oxygen concentration and nutrient availability. Because of good mixing
(reaeration) and photosynthesis the epilimnion will be rich in DO. But the hypolimnion,
which is practically cut off from the overlying DO-rich waters, will have a lower DO and may
become anaerobic (devoid of oxygen). The only source of oxygen in the hypolimnion will be
the result of photosynthesis that will occur only if the water is clear enough to allow the
euphotic zone (the upper layer of water through which sunlight can penetrate) to extend
below the thermocline. That is, the hypolimnion of the clear, oligotrophic lake at least has the
possibility of having a source of oxygen, while that of the eutrophic lake does not. In addition,
the eutrophic lake is rich in nutrients and organic matter. The settling organic debris into the
hypolimnion leads to increased oxygen demands due to decomposition. During the course
of summer, the stratification becomes more and more stable as the epilimnion is further
heated creating more pronounced density differences in the water column. In the extreme
case, the hypolimnion of a eutrophic lake can become anaerobic during the summer, as is
suggested in Figure 11.20. On the other hand, the epilimnion, where the plants are, receives
no dissolved nutrients from the bottom, where the decomposition occurs, so primary
productivity becomes nutrient limited and declines over the summer.

Figure 11.20 Dissolved oxygen profiles under the conditions of the summer thermal
stratification for eutrophic and oligotrophic lakes.

As the seasons progress and winter approaches, the temperature of the epilimnion begins to
drop and the marked stratification of summer begins to disappear. Sometime in the fall, the
stratification will totally disappear, the temperature will become uniform with depth, and
wind action can cause complete mixing of the lake. Oxygen from the epilimnion becomes
mixed with the oxygen-poor hypolimnion and nutrients from the bottom are also get evenly
distributed throughout the lake. This phenomenon is termed as the fall overturn. Similarly, in
climates that are cold enough for the surface to drop below 4 °C, there will be a winter
stratification, followed by a spring overturn when the surface warms up enough to allow
complete mixing once again. Thus, temperate climate lakes have at least one, if not two cycles
of stratification and turnover every year. In winter, demands for oxygen decrease as
CHAPTER 11

metabolic rates decrease, while at the same time the capacity of water to hold oxygen
increases. Thus, even though winter stratification may occur, its effects tend not to be as
severe as those in the summer. The end results of such seasonal overturns are seasonal
blooms of phytoplankton, due to the replenishment of nutrients in autumn and increasing
temperatures and light levels in spring.
Water quality management in lakes. Since phosphorus is the limiting nutrient, the
primary objective of controlling the cultural eutrophication should be controlling the release

348 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

of phosphorus into the lakes. Once the input is reduced, the phosphorus concentration will
gradually fall as phosphorus is incorporated in the sediment or flushed from the lake. Other
strategies for reversing or slowing the eutrophication process, such as precipitating
phosphorus with additions of aluminum (alum), removing phosphorus-rich sediments by
dredging or even sealing the bed or bottom of the lake using perforated membrane-like
materials in order to prevent exchange of phosphorus between water and sediment, have
been proposed. However, if the input of phosphorus is not also curtailed, the eutrophication
process will continue.
The nuisances caused by excessive algal bloom in lakes and reservoirs may be alleviated
temporarily by the application of copper sulfate. The copper sulfate kills the algae, but its
dose must be carefully controlled to prevent killing of fish. Ferric Sulphate solutions have
been successfully used to reduce phosphate and Chlorophyll-a concentrations (Mason,
1991). Underwater weed cutters mounted on boats, can be used to remove root of aquatic
plants and dredges can be used to remove sediments, but these are not very practical
measures if the water body is very large. These measures can help speed up the removal of
phosphorus already in the lake system in association with other phosphorus reducing
options. Of course, the need to speed the recovery process must be weighed against the
potential damage from inundating shoreline areas with sludge and stirring up toxic
compounds buried in the sediment further exacerbating the situation.
The most prominent sources of phosphorus are municipal and industrial wastewaters,
seepage from septic tanks, and agricultural runoff that carries phosphorus fertilizers into the
water. Tertiary treatment of sewage can effectively remove much of the phosphorus, as well
as the nitrogen, from wastewater, but this is a very costly means of control. Another option
would be to divert the wastewater effluents around the lake into some other body of water
that are relatively less sensitive to nutrient inputs, such as a streams and rivers. But this
measure would be of less effective if most of the nutrient loading is being contributed by
dispersed (non-point) sources such as runoff from agricultural areas. In these cases, waste
minimization can be applied to the control of phosphorus loading to lakes from agricultural
fertilization by encouraging farmers to fertilize more often with smaller amounts and to take
effective action to stop soil erosion. On a household level, avoiding the use of phosphate-
based detergents or even in the dairying industry, using cleaning agents other than
phosphoric acid can reduce the amount of phosphorus entering into surface waters. CHAPTER 11

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 349

 Questions
1. Why is surface water pollution a cause for concern in developing countries of the
world today?
2. What are point and non-point sources of pollution? Why are non-point sources of
pollution difficult to control?
3. Describe the different categories of pollutants by composition.
4. What is cultural eutrophication? How does thermal stratification affect the DO levels
in the lake?
5. Derive the Streeter-Phelps DO sag curve equation. What are the factors affecting DO
levels in rivers?
6. As an engineer, what are your options in managing river and lake water quality?
7. In a standard 5-day BOD test:
a. Why is the BOD bottle stoppered?
b. Why is the test run in the dark (or in a black bottle)?
c. Why is it usually necessary to dilute the sample?
d. Why is it sometimes necessary to seed the sample?
e. Why isn't ultimate BOD measured?
8. A BOD test is run using 100 mL of treated wastewater mixed with 200 mL of pure
water. The initial DO of the mix is 9.0 mg/L. After 5 days, the DO is 4.0 mg/L. After a
long period of time, the DO is 2.0 mg/L and it no longer seems to be dropping.
Assuming that nitrification has been inhibited so that the only BOD being measured
is carbonaceous:
a. What is the 5-day BOD of the wastewater?
b. Assuming no nitrification effects, estimate the ultimate carbonaceous BOD.
c. What would be the remaining BOD after 5 days have elapsed?
d. Estimate the reaction rate constant k.
9. For a solution containing 200 mg/L of glycine [CH2(NH2)COOH], whose
oxidation can be represented as
CH2(NH2)COOH + 3O2 → 4CO2 + 2H2O + 2NH3
NH3 + 2O2 → NO3- + H+ + H2O
a. Find the theoretical CBOD.
b. Find the ultimate NBOD.
c. Find the total theoretical BOD.
10. The ultimate BOD of a river just below a sewage outfall is 50.0 mg/L and the DO is at
CHAPTER 11

the saturation value of 10.0 mg/L. The deoxygenation rate coefficient kd is 0.30/day
and the reaeration rate coefficient kr is 0.90/day. The river is flowing at the speed of
48.0 miles per day. The only source of BOD on this river is this single outfall.
c. Find the critical distance downstream at which DO is a minimum.
d. Find the minimum DO.
e. If a wastewater treatment plant is to be built, what fraction of the BOD would

350 Environmental Sanitation, Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

 have to be removed from the sewage to assure a minimum of 5.0 mg/L every
every- where downstream?
11. A lake with surface area equal to 80 ´ 106 m2 is fed by a stream having an average flow
of 15.0 m3/s and an average total phosphorus concentration of 0.010 mg/L. In
addition, treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant adds 0.20 m3/s of flow
having 5.0 mg/L total phosphorus. The phosphorus settling rate is estimated at 10
m/year. Estimate the average total phosphorus concentration. What rate of
phosphorus removal at the wastewater treatment plant would be required to keep the
concentration of phosphorus in the lake at an acceptable level of 0.010 mg/L?

CHAPTER 11

Water Pollution: Analysis and Control 351