Nitrates are essential plant nutrients, but in excess amounts they can cause significant water quality

problems. Together with phosphorus, nitrates in excess amounts can accelerate eutrophication,
causing dramatic increases in aquatic plant growth and changes in the types of plants and animals
that live in the stream. This, in turn, affects dissolved oxygen, temperature, and other indicators.

Excess nitrates can cause hypoxia (low levels of dissolved oxygen) and can become toxic to warm-
blooded animals at higher concentrations (10 mg/L) or higher) under certain conditions. The natural
level of ammonia or nitrate in surface water is typically low (less than 1 mg/L); in the effluent of
wastewater treatment plants, it can range up to 30 mg/L.

Sources of nitrates include wastewater treatment plants, runoff from fertilized lawns and cropland,
failing on-site septic systems, runoff from animal manure storage areas, and industrial discharges
that contain corrosion inhibitors.

The removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater has become an emerging worldwide concern
because these compounds cause eutrophication in natural water.

High levels of nutrients

such as phosphates from
wastewater treatment
plants are released into
the environment and are
the main cause of
eutrophication, which
occurs in oceans, lakes
and rivers when water
quality is impaired due to
nutrient pollution
When loads of nitrogen from sources, such as fertilizer and septic tanks, exceed
the capacity of terrestrial systems, cascading harmful effects could be happened
as nitrogen moves downstream to coastal ecosystems (Galloway and
Cowling 2002). Likewise, several million tons of phosphorus-containing
wastewater is directly discharged into the watercourses in the developing
countries causing environmental damage. Discharge of wastewater containing
excess nitrogen and/or phosphorus species is a serious environmental problem
worldwide, as these nutrients cause eutrophication of surface water bodies
(Khelifi et al. 2002; Painting et al. 2007; Tiemeyer et al. 2009; Wei et
al. 2008). Hence, eutrophication of aquatic environment frequently causes fish
kills, phytoplankton blooms, and deteriorates water quality (Song et al. 2011).