Household Wastewater Discharges Into The Rural Alabama & Impact on Watershed Water Quality

Year 2019, Volume: 3 Issue: 1, 22 - 43, 14.01.2019

Erdoğan Aytekin , Mark Ellıott

https://doi.org/10.31807/tjwsm.420448

Abstract

In rural areas, untreated wastewater discharged from homes (commonly
called “straight pipes”) can cause harmful effects on the region’s rivers,
streams and lead to negative impacts on water quality and potentially
ecological and human health. Determining and addressing the water quality and
health of these aquatic ecosystems requires identification of the source of
contamination. Surface water quality in Hale County was evaluated at least once
a month at twenty sites in wet and dry seasons. Samples were analyzed for
physical (turbidity), chemical (pH, conductivity, chloride, sulfate, calcium,
iron, magnesium, potassium, sodium, ammonium, ortho-phosphorus, nitrite,
nitrate, dissolved organic carbon, optical indices), and microbiological (E. coli) water quality parameters.
Excitation-emission matrixes (EEMs) Parallel Factor Analysis (PARAFAC) was used
to identify and classify fluorescence emitting organic substances based on
fluorescence peak location. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to
identify analyte signatures associated with sewage contamination. In order to
detect straight pipe wastewater impacts on water quality, three main sites were
sampled upstream, midstream and downstream of the town of Newbern, Alabama over
the three months of the drought period (i.e., from September to November 28^th,
2016). Over 20 water quality parameters were analyzed and compared with the
WHO, EPA, and ADEM standards. The results showed that E. coli values highly exceed water quality standards, particularly
after the drought when peak E. coli
concentrations downstream exceeded 100,000 per 100 mL. This study is one of the
first to document the adverse impacts of straight pipe discharges on water
quality in the United States.

Keywords

water quality, water management, wastewater

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