How To Measure The Quality & Strength of Water

Important wastewater contaminants and quality factors:

The presence of contaminants (or pollutants) in wastewater leads to the reduction of water quality and consequently interferes with its reuse. Presence of these contaminants also prevents the direct disposal of wastewater into environment since it degrades the quality of water and soil.

The table below lists:

# The contaminant sources

# The type of wastewater

# The effect

Click here for the table

Wastewater is categorized in terms of:

# Quality factors

# Quality parameters

# Tests

The physical parameters include:

# Temperature (which affects rates of chemical and biochemical reactions)

# Viscosity (and hence efficiency of sedimentation of settleable solids)

# Solubility of gases

# Odor

# Color

# Solids

The physical characteristics help assessing the condition of domestic wastewater, whether fresh or septic and its earlier incarnations, for example ground water and/or industrial
wastewaters mixed with domestic wastewater.

The chemical quality of wastewater can be determined by studying the following:

# pH

# Alkalinity

# Chlorides

# Various forms of nitrogen

# Phosphorous

# Sulfur

# Heavy metals

# Toxic substances

# Gases

Above all, tests like BOD, COD, and TOC (which are used to estimate the organic content either directly or indirectly as oxygen consumed by organic matter).

The BOD test, in spite of its limitation, which is large time requirement (5 days), is a universally used test as it measures the biodegradable fraction of organic matter, unlike any other test.

Strength:

The strength of wastewater depends mainly on the degree of dilution. The wastewater characteristics can vary widely with local conditions, hour of the day, day of the week, season, and types of sewers

Click here for the Table

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