Chapter 7: Pollution

WATER ISSUES
 Outline
• Water use and
conservation
• Water pollution
• Source and type of
water pollutants
• Surface & groundwater
pollution
• Water quality
• Wastewater treatment
 Water Use
• Off-stream use: water removed from its source
(e.g., river) for use and returned to the source
after use
• Ex. Water used in industrial process returned to
cooling pond then river
• Consumptive use: an off stream use but is not
returned to its source (e.g., use by plant or animal)
• In-stream use: use of rivers for navigation,
hydroelectric power, fish and wildlife habitats &
recreation
• Multiple uses create controversy
– Each require different condition to prevent damage
effect
– How much water can be removed from stream without
damaging the ecosystem
World use of water
 Water resources and consumption
in Malaysia
• Estimated total annual water resources is
2625 billion m3 (1 BCM= 1 million mega L)
(Forum 21, WWF)
• 67% of water consumption is for the
domestic usage.
• Consumption rate varies from about 476
liters per capita per day to about 90 liters
per capita per day (Malaysian Water
Industries Guide, 2004)
 Water Issues in Malaysia

• Over-emphasis on Water Supply Management: more

comprehensive approach such as water conservation
and recycling needed.
• High rates of water wastage: 287 L/capita/day, 70%
higher than recommended by UN 165 L/capita/day.
• High rates of Non-Revenue Water (NRW): treated
water which does not generate any revenue, about
40%
• Destruction and degradation of water catchments
Water Issues in Malaysia

• Legislation and Enforcement: need to be reviewed

in today’s context
• Institutional issues: too many agencies have
jurisdiction over water resources.
• Changing weather patterns
• Privatization of the water sector
• Low water tariffs
• Inefficient agricultural water
• Water pollution
 Water pollution

• Degradation of water
quality
• How far its effects on public
health, ecological impacts
• The primary water pollution
problem in world is lack of
clean, disease-free drinking
water
• Cause epidemics of
waterborne disease like
cholera
• Two types of water pollutants exist; point source
and nonpoint source.
• Point sources of pollution occur when harmful
substances are emitted directly into a body of
water.
• A nonpoint source delivers pollutants indirectly
through environmental changes.
 Source and category of
water pollutants

• 1. Dead organic matter

• Sources: raw sewage, agricultural waste,
urban garbage
• Produces high BOD and diseases
• 2. Pathogens
• Sources: human and animal excrement and
urine
• Water borne disease (e.g., cholera)
3. Organic chemicals
 Sources: Agricultural use of pesticides and
herbicides, industrial process that
produces dioxin
 Cause ecological damage and health
problems
4. Nutrients
 P and N from agriculture, urban lead use
(fertilizers), wastewater from sewage
treatment
 Cause eutrophication
• 5. Heavy metals

• Agricultural, urban, industrial use of mercury, lead,

selenium, cadmium, etc..
• Cause significant ecosystem damage and health
problems
• 6. Acids
• Sulfuric acid from coal and metal mines, industrial
processes that dispose acids improperly
• Acid mine drainage major water pollution
• Damage ecosystem and spoil water resources
• 7. Sediment
• Runoff from construction sites, agricultural runoff & natural
erosion
• Reduces water quality, loss of soil resources
• 8. Heat (thermal pollution)
• Warm to hot water from power plants and other industrial
facilities
• Causes ecosystem disruption
• 9. Radioactivity
• Contamination by nuclear power industry, military and
natural sources
• Health effects
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)

• Often, pollution in surface waters is not measured in terms of

the concentrations of the individual contaminants but is
measured in terms of their aggregate potential for oxygen
depletion, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD).
• BOD: The amount of oxygen required for biochemical
decomposition processes
• Organic matter + O2 → new cells + CO2 + H2O + etc.
• Determined in the laboratory by measuring the depletion of
dissolved oxygen in the contaminated water placed in a closed
container, over the course of several days (usually 5 days).
•Loss of dissolved oxygen (DO) in a river proceeds in two steps:
•During the first five days or so, only carbon processes take place,
known as Carbonaceous Biochemical Demand (CBOD)
•Nitrification begins by day six or so, adding the Nitrogenous
Biochemical Oxygen Demand (NBOD).
•The net BOD is the sum of the CBOD and NBOD.
Waterborne Disease

• Lack of clean, disease-free drinking water

• In less developed countries peoples expose to
waterborne disease
• Infectious agent that cause sickness and death
• Excrement of humans and other animals
infected with pathogens contains these
microorganism and their eggs
• Contamination from carrier can infect other
individuals
 Disease and its infectious agent
Vibrio cholerae

• Thypoid fever – Salmonella typhi

• Cholera – Vibrio cholerae
• Salmonellosis – Salmonella sp.
• Diarrhea – Escherichia coli
• Infectious hepatitis – Hepatitis A virus
Clostridium perfringens

• Poliomyelitis – polio virus

• Dysentry – Shigella sp.
• Giardiasis – Giardia intestinalis
• Numerous parasitic disease – roundworms,
flatworms
Polio virus
 Fecal Coliform Bacteria

• Standard measure and indicator of disease potential

• Difficult to monitor disease-carrying organism
• Standard method: use count of fecal coliform bacteria
• Indicate presence of fecal coliform from mammals and birds:
waterborne disease may present as well
• Fecal coliform bacteria usually (but not always) harmless
bacteria that are normal constituent of human and animal
intestines
• Present in all human and animal waste
• The threshold number used by U.S Environmental Protection
Agency for swimming water is not more than 200 cells of fecal
coliform bacteria per 100 ml of water
• One type of fecal coliform bacteria is Escherichia coli has been
responsible of causing human illness and death
 Nutrient

• P and N are two most important nutrients that

cause water pollution problem: eutrophication
• Highest concentration in agricultural areas
• Sources: fertilizers, detergents, products of
sewage treatment plants
 Eutrophication
• Nutrients cause increase in
the growth of aquatic plants,
photosynthetic blue-green
bacteria and algae
• Algae form surface mats,
shading the water, reducing
photosynthesis
• Bacteria and algae die
• They decompose, BOD
increases, DO consumed
• If DO sufficiently lowered, Mats of drying green algae in a pond
other organisms die undergoing eutrophication
 Oil
• Usually discharge in ocean but also
on land and rivers
• Oil spills from underwater oil drilling,
normal shipping activities release
more oil
• Spill cause by tanker accidents
• March 24 1989, supertanker
accident, Exxon Valdez in Alaska
• Effects of spill: death of 13% seals,
28% sea otters, 100,000-645,000
seabirds
• 20% of oil evaporated and 50%
deposited on shoreline
• Only 14% was collected by skimming
and waste recovery
 Sediment
• Consist of rock and mineral fragments ranging from
gravel, finer sand, clay and silt and finer colloidal
particle
• By volume and mass sediment is the greatest water
pollutant
• Chokes streams, fill lakes, reservoirs, ponds, canals,
drainage ditches, buried vegetation
• Sediment pollution cause to problem, deplete land
resources and reduces water quality
High suspended solids after raining, Sg. Putat,
Melaka (Picture: Norli Abdullah)
Sand mining activity

Langat river basin

Pictures: Norli Abdullah
(DOE, Putrajaya)
 Surface water pollution
• Occurs when too much of harmful
substance flows into a body of water
• Exceeding the natural ability of that
water body to remove the undesirable
material
• Point sources: eg. Pipes discharging into
waterways, accidental spills etc..
• Non-point sources/area sources/mobile
sources: more diffuses over the land,
mobile sources: automobile exhaust,
agricultural runoff etc..
• Difficult to isolate and corrected
• Two approach, reduce sources and
treatment
Pollution event at Sg
Keratong on 22nd June
2005
Pictures: Norli Abdullah (DOE, Putrjaya)
Sg Danga (Johor), dead fishes
Pictures: Norli Abdullah (DOE, Putrajaya)
Leachate entering the
river

Leachate in the
drain

Pollution from
landfill leachate
Pictures: Norjan Yusof
 Groundwater pollution

• Some people depends on groundwater as

their source of drinking water
• Believed that its pure and safe
• Can easily polluted by several sources
• Even very toxic pollutants are difficult to
recognize
 Water Quality

• Quality or characteristic of water: physical,

chemical and biological characteristics
• Physical characteristics: temperature, odor,
color, total suspended solid, turbidity
• Chemical characteristic; pH, hardness, DO,
COD, BOD
• microorganisms : coliform
 Rivers quality classification

• Based on Interim national water quality standard

(INWQS) rivers can be classified into five
• Classification is based on several measured physical
and chemical parameters
• Known as water quality index (WQI)
• DOE used DOE-WQI for river classification
• A Water Quality Index, relates a group of water quality
parameters to a common scale and combines them into a
single number in accordance with a chosen method or model
of computation.
• The main objective of the WQI system is to use it as a
preliminary means of assessment of a water body for
compliance with the standards adopted for five designated
classes of beneficial uses.
• The desired used of WQI to an assessment of water quality
trends for management purposes even though it is not meant
specially as an absolute measure of the degree of pollution or
the actual water quality.
 DOE-WQI

DOE-WQI take into account the following parameters:

1. Dissolved Oxygen (DO)

2. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)
3. Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD)
4. Total Suspended Solid (TSS)
5. Ammonia Nitrogen (NH3)-N
6. pH
• WQI = (0.22 x SIDO) + (0.19 x SIBOD) + (0.16 x COD) + (0.15 x
SIAN) + (0.16X SISS) + (0.12 x SIpH)
 INWQS
• Base on local survey in Malaysia
• >91.75 = Class I
• >75.36 = Class II
• >51.67 = Class III
• >29.61 = Class IV
• =< 29.61 = Class V
INTERIM NATIONAL WATER QUALITY STANDARDS FOR MALAYSIA (INWQS)

Classes
Parameters (Units)
l llA llB lll lV V
Ammonical
mg/l 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.9 2.7 >2
Nitrogen
BOD mg/l 1 3 3 6 12 > 12
COD mg/l 10 25 25 50 100 > 100
DO mg/l 7 5-7 5-7 3-5 <3 <1

pH - 6.5-8.5 6.5 - 9.5 6-9 5-9 5-9

Colour TCU 15 150 150

Electrical
mmhos/cm 1000 1000 - 6000 -
Conductivity
Floatables - N N N - - -
Odour - N N N - - -
Salinity o/ 0.5 1 - - - -
oo

Taste - N N N - - -

Total Dissolved
mg/l 500 1000 - - - -
Solids

Total
Suspended mg/l 25 50 50 150 300 > 300
Solids

oC Normal
Temperature - Normal +2 - - -
+2
Turbidity NTU 5 50 50 - - -
Faecal 5000 5000
counts/100ml 10 100 400 -
Caliform* (2000)@ (2000)

Total Coliform counts/100ml 100 5000 50000 50000 50000 >50000

Rivers classification and uses
Class I
• 1st category of clean water supply
• No treatment is needed except boiling and used of
disinfectant
• Suitable for sensitive aquatic species (Fisheries 1)

Class IIA
• Type 2 drinking water
• Conventional treatment is needed before used
• Suitable for sensitive aquatic species (Fisheries 2)
Class IIB
• For recreational purposes and skin contact is allowed
• Can be use d as a drinking water
• A precise treatment is needed

Class III
• Suitable for type 3 fisheries: non sensitive aquatic species
• For a normal aquatic species and species which have economic value
• Can be used for livestock
Class IV
• Used for irrigation in agriculture
• Not suitable for sensitive plants
Class V
• Suitable for transportation
 Wastewater Treatment

• Involved primary, secondary and advance treatment

• Primary Treatment
• Raw sewage pass through series of screen
• Purpose: to remove large floating organic materials
• Then enters grit chamber : sand, small stones and
grit removed and disposed of
• Then enters primary sedimentation tank
 Picture: EBgroup UPM

• Particulate matter settles out to form

sludge
• Chemical : helping sedimentation process
• Sludge removed and transported to
digester
• Removed 30% to 40% of BOD
• Mainly suspended solid and organic matter
 Secondary Treatment

• Common treatment is activated sludge

• Wastewater (from primary sedimentation tank)
enters aeration tank
• Wastewater is mixed with air and sludge
• Sludge contains aerobic bacteria
• That consumes organic material (BOD) in waste
• Wastewater enters final sedimentation tank
• Sludge settles out
• Some activated sludge is recycled
Sequencing batch reactor
(SBR) for landfill leachate
treatment Picture: Norjan Yusof
• Most sludge is transported to sludge digester
• Treated by anaerobic bacteria/anaerobic digestion
• Methane gas is produced
• Wastewater from final sedimentation tank
disinfected/chlorinated
• Kill pathogens/eliminate disease-causing organism
• Treated water than discharged (into river, lake etc)
• Sludge from digester is dried
• Disposed in landfill/used to improved agricultural land
• Secondary treatment removed 90% of BOD
 Industrial anaerobic bioreactor located in FELDA Serting
Hilir, Malaysia used to treat palm oil mill effluent
(POME) in order to generate electricity
Source of pictures: EBgroup UPM
Advanced wastewater treatment

• Primary and secondary treatment do not removed all

pollutants
• Adding more steps of treatment
• Used when it is important to maintain good water
quality
• Ex. Phosphate and nitrates, organic chemicals, heavy
metals removed by sand filters, carbon filters and
chemicals
• Treated water discharged into surface water
• May used for agricultural lands, golf courses etc
Nitrification activated sludge system for
high strength ammonium landfill
leachate removal