Annual and seasonal variation of turbidity, total dissolved solids, nitrate and nitrite in the Parsabad water treatment plant, Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mohammad Reza Zare 1
Mohsen Rezaei 1
Ali Fatehizadeh 1
Yousef Poureshgh 2
Ali Shahriary 3
Ali Toolabi 4
1 Environment Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Isfahan and Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Student Research Center, IUMS, Isfahan, Iran
2 Department of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Health, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
4 Department of Health, Bam University of Medical Sciences, Bam, Iran
10.4103/2277-9183.122421
Abstract
Aims: This study investigated the annual and seasonal variation of turbidity; total dissolved solid (TDS), nitrate and nitrite in Parsabad water treatment plant (WTP), Iran. Materials and Methods: The water samples were obtained from the inlet and outlet of Parsabad WTP from February 2002 to June 2009. The samples' turbidity, TDS, nitrate, nitrite, pH, and temperature were measured according to standard methods once a month and the average of these parameters were calculated for each season of year. Results: The maximum concentration of inlet turbidity, TDS, nitrate and nitrite were 691, 700.5, 25, and 0.17 mg/l, respectively. These parameters for outlet samples in the study period were 3.0, 696.7, 18, and 0.06 mg/l, respectively. While these concentrations in outlet zone were lower than World Health Organization (WHO) or United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) water quality guidelines, WTP could not reduce the TDS, nitrate, nitrite and pH value and these parameters were not different in the inlet and outlet samples. However, the WTP reduced the turbidity significantly with an efficiency of up to 85%. Conclusion: This study showed that a common WTP with rapid sand filtration can treat a maximum river turbidity of 700 NTU in several years. As no differences were observed between inlet and outlet TDS, nitrate, nitrite and pH in the studied WTP. It can be concluded that compensatory schemes should be predicted for modification of these parameters when they exceed the standards in the emergency situations.
Keywords
Annual variations
characteristics
drinking water
maximum concentration
seasonal variations
standard
water characteristics
water treatment plant
WTP standards
International Journal of Environmental Health Engineering (IJEHE)
Volume 2, November
Autumn 2013
Pages 1-5

  • Receive Date 03 February 2023