WATER QUALITY

ASSESSMENT
 PROPERTIES OF WATER
• Water is a chemical compound of oxygen and
hydrogen and in the gaseous state can be
represented by the molecular formula H2O. The
isotopes of hydrogen and three isotopes of
oxygen exist in nature, and if these are taken into
account, 33 varieties of water are possible.
• The physical properties of liquid water are unique
in a number of respects, and these departure
from what might be considered as normal for
such a compound are of the greatest importance
with respect to both the existence of life on earth
and the operation of many geochemical
processes.
 PROPERTIES OF WATER
CONT…
• The boiling point and freezing point of water are
both far higher than would be the theoretically
expected, considering the low molecular weight
of the compound, and the range of temperature
over which water as a liquid is wider than might
be expected.
 MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF
WATER
• Molecular and crystalline structures are often
studied by the use of models, in which spheres
of various sizes represent the atoms out of
which the structures is built. Much information
has been obtained, especially through the
science of crystallography, as to the distances
that separate the ions in crystals, and the
effective size of the ions themselves
 MOLECULAR STRUCTURE OF
WATER (Cont)
• The bonds connecting the hydrogen’s to oxygen describe
an angle of 105o, so that the two hydrogen are relatively
close together on one side of the molecule.
• The molecule has dipolar properties because the positive
charge associated with the hydrogen are connected on
one side of the molecule, leaving a degree of negativity on
the opposite side. Forces of attraction thus exist between
hydrogens of one molecule and the oxygen bonds.
• Hydrogen bonds still remain an important force but their
arrangement is continually shifting. From Ice to Liquid to
Gas
• The attraction between molecules of a liquid is shown at a
liquid surface by the phenomenon called Surface tension
 PROPERTIES OF WATER

• Chemical Constitution of Water

• Ionic and Non Ionic
• Ionic
• Anion
• Cations
– Major Anions
» Bicarbonate, Chloride, Sulphate
– Major Cations
» Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium
• Non-Ionic
• SiO2, Dissolved gases, oily Substance, Synthetic
detergent,
 Properties which Affect Quality of
• Hardness
Water
• Carbonate (Temporary) Hardness CaCO3
• Non Carbonate (Permanent) Hardness CaSO4
• Concentration of Hydrogen-ion, which are expressed in pH units. It is
the—Log10H+
• Specific Electrical Conductance
• - Increases with temperature: values must therefore be related to the
same temperature (2%)
• Colour
• Alkanity: Ability to neutralize acid; due to the presence of OH-, HCO3-,
CO32-,
• Acidity: Water with pH 4.5 is said to have acidity; caused by the
presence of free mineral acids and carbonic acids
• Turbidity: Measure of transparency of water column; indirect method of
measuring ability of suspended and colloidal materials to minimize
penetration of light through water.
• Dissolved gasses: O2, N2, CO2, H2S, CH4, NH3, etc.
 PHYSICAL CHEMICAL
PARAMETER
• Since water is not found in its pure in nature, it
is important to determine its combined
• physical,
• chemical and
• biological characteristics.
• This is done through monitoring of water for its
quality.
• Physical chemical parameter analyzed in natural
environments; Atmosphere (rainfall),
hydrosphere (river, lakes, and oceans) and
Lithosphere (Groundwater) are similar-
 PHYSICAL CHEMICAL
PARAMETER (Cont)
• Temperature: Measurement is relevant
• For Aquatic life
• Control of waste treatment plants
• Cooling purposes for industries
• Calculation of solubility of dissolved gases
• Identification of water source
• Agriculture Irrigation
• Domestic uses (Drinking, bathing)
• Instrument of measurement is
thermometer
 PHYSICAL CHEMICAL
PARAMETER (Cont)
• pH: Controlled by CO2/HCO3-/CO32- Equilibria
in natural water. Its values lie between 4.5 and
8.5. It is important
• Chemical and biological properties of liquid
• Analytical work
• Measurement is done in the field. Most
common method of determination is the
electrometric method, involving a pH-meter.
It is important to calibrate the meter with
standard pH buffer solutions
 PHYSICAL CHEMICAL
PARAMETER (Cont)
• Dissolved Oxygen: Water in contact with the
atmosphere has measurable dissolved oxygen
concentration. It values depends on;
• Partial pressure of O2 in the gaseous phase
• Temperature of the water
 PHYSICAL CHEMICAL
PARAMETER (Cont)
• Concentration of salt in the water (the higher
the salt content in water, the lower the
concentration of dissolved oxygen and the
other gases). Measurement is important in
• Evaluation of surface water quality
• Waste-treatment processes control
• Corrosivity of water
• Septicity
• Photosynthetic activity of natural water
Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement
• Temperature: Temperature affects the density
of water, the solubility of constituents (Such
as oxygen in water), pH, Specific conductance,
the rate of chemical reactions, and biological
activity of water. Continuous water quality
sensor measure temperature with thermistor,
which is a semiconductor having resistance that
changes with temperature. Modern thermistor
can measure temperature to plus or minus 0.1
degree celcius (oC).
 Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• Specific Conductance: Electrical conductivity is a
measure of the capacity of water to conduct an
electrical current and is a function of the types and
quantities of dissolved substance in water.
• As concentration of dissolved ions increase,
conductivity of the water increases.
• Specific conductances are a good surrogate for
total dissolved solids and total ions
concentrations, but there is no universal linear
relation between total dissolved solids and
specific conductance.
 Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• Salinity: Although Salinity is not measured directly,
some sondes include the capability of calculating
and recording salinity based on conductivity
measurement.
• Conductivity has long been a tool of estimating the
amount of chloride, a principle component of salinity in
water. Salinity is commonly reported using the Practical
Salinity Scale (PSS), a scale developed to a standard
potassium-chloride solution and based on
 conductivity,
 temperature and
 barometric pressure measurement
• Salinity in practical salinity units is nearly equivalent to
salinity per thousand.
Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• Dissolved Oxygen: Sources of DO in surface waters are
primarily atmospheric reaeration and photosynthetic
activity of aquatic plants.
• DO is an important factor in chemical reactions in
water and in the survival of aquatic organisms. In
surface water, DO concentration typically range from 2-
10mg/l. DO saturation decreases as water temperature
increases, and DO saturation increases with increased
atmospheric pressure.
• The DO Solubility in saline environments is
dependent on
• salinity
• as well as temperature and
• barometric pressure
Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• The technology most commonly used for continuous
water quality sensors is the amperometric method, which
measures DO with temperature compensated
polarographic membrane-type sensor.
• The newest technology for measuring DO is the
Luminescent sensor that is based on dynamic
fluorescence quenching.
• The sensor has light emitting diode (LED) to illuminate a
specially designed oxygen-sensitive substrate that, when
excited, emits a luminescent light with a lifetime that is
directly proportional to the ambient oxygen concentration
 Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• pH: In more technical terms, pH is defined as the negative
logarithm of the hydrogen ions concentration. For example in pure
water, the numerical value of hydrogen ions concentration 10 -7 The
logarithm, (or exponent) is -7, and the negative of that is 7
• Because the pH scale is based on logarithms to the base 10, each unit
change in pH actually represents a tenfold change in the degree of
acidity or alkalinity of a solution. For instance, a solution with a pH = 5 is
ten times more acidic than the solution with a pH = 6, likewise a solution
with a pH = 4 is 100 times more acidic than the solution with pH = 6.
• Dissolved gases such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and
ammonia, apparently affect pH. Dagasification (for example, loss of
carbon dioxide) or precipitation of a solid phase (for example, calcium
carbonate) and other chemical, physical, and biological reactions may
cause the pH of a water sample to change appreciably soon after
sample collection.
• The electrometric pH-measurement method, using a hydrogen-ion
electrode, commonly is used in continuous water-quality pH
sensors
Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• Turbidity: Turbidity is defined as an expression of
the optical properties of a sample that cause light
rays to be scattered and absorbed, rather than
transmitted in straight lines through a sample. ASTM
further describe turbidity as the presence of suspended
and dissolved matter, such as clay, silt, finely divided
organic matter, plankton, other microscopic organisms,
organic acids, and dyes. Implicit in this definition is the
fact that colour, either of dissolved materials or of
particles suspended in the water also can affect turbidity.
• Turbidity sensors operate differently from those for
temperature, specific conductance, DO, and pH, which
convert electrical potentials into the measurement of
constituent of interest.
Effect of Some Physical Parameter
and their Measurement (Cont)
• Most commercially available sensors report data
in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU)/ with a
sensor range of 0-1000 and an accuracy of -+5
percent or 2NTU, whichever is greater. Some
sensors can report values reliably up to about
1500 NTU.
WATER SAMPLING

• Grab Sampling
• Composite Sampling
 Water Sampling
• Sampling of most wastewaters and contaminated water
is difficult due to their highly variable nature.
• To obtain an accurate assessment, samples will have to
be taken over a time period, over different sections of the
waterway, and at different depths.
• Some industrial discharges into waterways are
intermittent, which will extend the time over which
sampling must be carried out.
• Where to sample in the waterway depends on the inflow
and outflow of water and on stratification, and the whole
waterway may need to be assessed.
 Water Sampling Cont…
• If a groundwater is to be monitored, wells will
have to be drilled and the very process of drilling
can alter or contaminate samples.
• Contamination can come from the drilling
method, casing material and the sample method.
These types of consideration have to be
evaluated when choosing the sampling methods
and analyzing the results.
 Eutrophication
• Build up of nutrients in a body of water
• Naturally occurs slowly
• Agriculture is a major factor in
Eutrophication of surface waters.
• Humans cause imbalances
by creating pulses of
nutrients due to over-
fertilizing crops and
raising animals in confined areas.
Nutrients include nitrogen and phosphorus-containing
compounds that are essential to life in small quantities
but harmful in excess.
 CLASSIFICATION OF WATER
POLLUTANTS
• First, a pollutant can be classified according to
the nature of its origin as either a point
sources of a Dispersed (Non Point) sources
pollutant
 CLASSIFICATION OF WATER
POLLUTANTS (Cont)
• Point Sources pollutant are easies to deal with than are
dispersed sources pollutant; those from a point source
have being collected and convened to a single point
where they can removed from the water in the treatment
plant and the point discharges from treatment plant can
easily be monitor by regulatory agencies.

• Pollutants from dispersed sources are much more

difficult to control. The most effective way to control the
dispersed sources is to set appropriate restriction on
land use.
 Point and Nonpoint Sources

NONPOINT SOURCES

Rural homes

Urban streets Cropland

Animal feedlot

Suburban POINT
development SOURCES
Factory

Wastewater
treatment
plant

27
 CLASSIFICATION OF WATER
POLLUTANTS (Cont)
• In addition to being classified by there origin,
water pollutant can be classified into group of
substances base primarily on there
environmental or health effect. e.g., the following
lists identify 9 specific types of pollutants.
• -Pathogenic organism, -Oxygen-demanding
substances, -Plant nutrients -Toxic organics,
-Inorganic chemicals, -Sediments, -Radioactive
substances, -Heat, -Oil
 WATER QUALITY EXPRESSION
EXPRESSING CONCENTRATION
• The properties of solutions, suspensions and
colloids depend to large extent on their
concentrations. Since concentrations need to be
expressed quantitatively, instead of qualitatively
terms like dilute or strong, concentration are
usually expressed in terms of mass per unit
volume, part per million or billion, or percent.
 MASS PER UNIT VOLUME:
• One of the common types of concentration is
milligram per liter (mg/L).
• If 0.3g of salt is dissolved in 1500mL of water, then
the concentration is expressed as
300mg/1.5L=200mg/L, where 0.3g = 300mg and
1500mL = 1.5L (1g=1000mg/L; 1L=1000mL).
• For example, a concentration of 0.004mg/L is
preferably written as its equivalent 4g/L. Since
1000g=1mg, e.g., a concentration of 1250g/L is
equivalent to 1.25mg/L.
• In air, concentrations of particulate matter of gases
are commonly expressed in terms of micrograms
per cubic meter (g/m3).
 PART PER MILLION:
• One liter of water has a mass of 1kg. But 1kg is
equivalent to 1000g or 1 million mg. therefore, if
1 mg of a substance is dissolved in 1 L of water,
we can say that there is 1 mg of solute per
million mg of water. In other words, there is one
part per million (1 ppm)
• 1mg/L=1ppm.
• MICROg/L is preferred over its equivalent of
ppb.
 PERCENTAGE
CONCENTRATION:
• Concentrations in excess of 10000mg/L are
generally expressed in terms of percent, for
conveniences. For practical purposes, the
conversion of 1 percent = 10000 mg/L be used
even though the density of the solutions are
slightly more than that of pure water (10000mg/L
= 10000mg/1000000mg = 1 mg/100 mg = 1
percent).
• A concentration expressed in terms of percent
may be also computed using the following
expression. Percent = (Mass of Solute (mg)/
Mass of Solvent (mg)) X 100
 Work out
• EXAMPLE: A 500-mL aqueous solution has 125mg of
salt dissolved in it. Express the concentration of this
solution in terms of (a) mg/L, (b)ppm, (c)gpg (d) Percent
and (e) lb/mil gal
• Solution
• (125mg/500mL)X1000mL/L = 250mg/L
• 250mg/L = 250 ppm
• (250 mg/L X 1gpg)/17.1 mg/L = 14.6 gpg
• Applying this equation Percent = (Mass of Solute (mg)/
Mass of Solvent (mg))X 100
• Percent = 0.125g/500g X 100 = 0.025 percent Or divide
250mg/L by 10,000 to get 0.025 percent
• 250 mg/L X 8.34 = 2090 lb/mil gal
 PHYSICAL PARAMETERS

• Turbidity
• Temperature
• Colour
• Taste and Odour
 CHEMICAL PARAMENTER OF
WATER QUALITY.
• DISSOLVED OXYGEN
• BIOCHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND
• CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND
• NITRATE
• PHOSPHATE
• IRON
• MANGANESE
• COPPER
• ZINC
• TDS
• TSS etc
 CHEMICAL PARAMENTER OF
WATER QUALITY.
• The amount of oxygen used to completely decompose or stabilize
all the biodegradable organics in a given volume of water is called
Ultimate BOD,
• The BOD is a function of time. At the very beginning of a BOD test,
or time = 0, no oxygen will have been consumed and the BOD = 0.
As each day goes by oxygen is used by the microbes and the BOD
increase. Ultimately, the BODL is reached and the organics are
completely decomposed. A graph of the BOD versus time has the
characteristic shape called the BOD Curve.
• The BOD curve can be expressed mathematically by the following
equation:
• BODt = BODL X (1 – 10-kt)
• Where BODt = BOD at any time t. mg/L
• BODL = Ultimate BOD, mg/L
• k = constant representing the rate of BOD reaction
• t = time, d
 CHEMICAL PARAMENTER OF
WATER QUALITY.
• Example: A sample of sewage from a town is
found to have a BOD after 5 d (BOD5) of 180mg/L.
Estimate the Ultimate BOD (the BODL) of the
sewage assuming that k = 0.1/d for this waste
water.
Solution
• BODt = BODL X (1 – 10-kt)
• 180 = BODt = BODL X (1 – 10-kt) , It implies that 180 =
BODL X (1-10-0.1X5)
• Therefore 180 = BODL X (1- 0.316) ; 180 = BODL X
0.684
• Rearranging terms to solve for BODL gives
• BODL = 180/0.684 = 260 mg/L Rounded off.
 Measurement of BOD5
• The traditional BOD test is conducted in the standard 300-mL
glass BOD bottles. The test for 5-d BOD of water sample
involves taking two DO measurements: an initial
measurement when the test begins, at time t = 0, and a
second measurement, at t = 5, after the sample has been
incubated in the dark for 5 d at 20oC.
(The BOD5 is simply the difference between the two
measurements.)
• For example consider that a sample of water from a stream is
found to have an initial DO of 8.0 mg/L. It is placed directly
into a BOD bottle and incubated for 5 d at 20oC. After the 5 d,
the DO is determined to be 4.5mg/L.
 The BOD is the amount of oxygen consumed, or the
difference between the two DO readings. That is, BOD5 = 8.0
– 4.5 = 3.5mg/L.
 SOLIDS:
• Solids occurs in water either in solution or in suspension. There
are 2 types of solid, distinguished by passing the water sample
through a glass-fibre filter.
• By definition, the Suspended Solid are retain on top of the filter
and the Dissolved Solid pass through the filter with the water.
• If the filtered portion of the water sample is placed in a small
dish and then evaporated, the solid in the water remain as a
residue in the evaporating dish.
• This material is usually called Total Dissolved Solid (TDS). The
concentration of TDS is expressed in term of mg/L.
• it can be calculated as ; ( A - B ) X 1000
TDS ≡ C
Where A = equal to weigh of dish plus residue, Mg
B = Weight of empty dish
C = Volume of sample filtered, mL.
 SOLIDS:
• Example: The weight of an empty evaporating
dish is determined to be 40.525g. After a water
sample is filtered, 100mL of the sample is
evaporated from the dish. The weight of the dish
plus dried residue is found to be 40.545g.
Compute the TDS concentration
( A - B) X 1000 (40.545 - 40.525) X 1000
TDS ≡ C TDS ≡ 100
 SOLIDS:
• In drinking water, dissolved liquid may caused taste problems.
• Hardness, corrosion, or aesthetic problem may also
accompany excessive TDS concentration.
• In wastewater analysis and water pollution control, the
suspended retained on the filtered are of primary importance
and are referred to as TOTAL SUSPENDED SOLID (TSS).
• The TSS concentration can be computed using the TDS
equation, ( A - B) X1000
TSS ≡
C
where A represent the weight of the filtered plus retained solid
 B represent the weight of the clean filter
 C represent the volume of the sample filtered
 TOXIC AND RADIOACTIVE
SUBSTANCES:
• A wide variety of toxic inorganic and organic substances
may be found in water in very small or trace amount.
• Even in trace amounts, they can be a danger to public
sources (many come from industrial activities and
improper management of hazardous waste).
• A toxic chemical may be a poison, causing death, or it
may cause disease that is not noticeable until many
years after exposure. E.g. carcinogenic substance
• Some heavy metals that are toxic are Cadmium, Cd,
Chromium, Cr, Lead, Pb, Mercury, Hg, and Silver, Ag.
• Arsenic, As, Barium, Bar, and Selenium, Se, are also
poisonous in organic elements that must be monitored in
drinking water.
 RADIATION:
• The emission of subatomic particles or energy from unstable
nuclei of certain atoms, referred to as radiation, poses a
serious public health hazard.
• Consumption of radioactive substances in water is
undesirable, and maximum allowable concentrations of
radioactive materials have been established for public water
supplies.
• Potential sources of radioactive pollutants in water include
wastes from nuclear power plants, from industrial or medical
research using radioactive chemicals, and from refining of
uranium ores.
 BIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS OF
WATER QUALITY
• The presence or absence of living organisms in
water can be one of the most useful indicators of
its quality.
• In the streams, river, and lakes, the diversity of
fish and insect species provide a measure of the
biological balance or health of the aquatic
environment.
• A wide variety of different species of organisms
usually indicates that the stream or lake is
polluted. The disappearance of certain species
and overabundance of other groups of organisms
is generally one of the effects of pollution.
 Examples
• BACTERIA:
• ALGAE:
• PROTOZOA:
• VIRUESE:
• COLIFORM: