Wastewater, Stormwater, Runoff Testing

Wastewater includes liquids and waterborne solids from domestic, industrial, or commercial uses as well as other water that has been used in human activities. The water quality has been degraded, and then discharged to a sewage system. Two general categories of wastewater, not entirely separable, are recognized: domestic wastewater and industrial wastewater. Domestic wastewater originates principally from domestic, household activities but will usually include water discharged from commercial and business buildings and institutions as well as groundwater. Surface and storm water may also be present.

Contemporary economic development has also led to the growth of many water intensive industries that tend to represent the most water-polluting sectors of the economy. The most notable examples of these industries include the iron and steel industry; the mining industry; the chemical, petroleum, fertilizer industries; the dye and textile industry; the pulp and paper industry; the distillery industry; and the food and dairy industry. The diverse nature of these industries demands effluent treatment in similarly diverse forms, employing a variety of technologies from small to very large scale operations.

Stormwater is a continuing problem for both urban and rural areas. The excess runoff not only poses a potential flood hazard causing millions of dollars lost each year, but also produces environmental degradation in the form of transportation pipeline erosion and sedimentation of lakes & streams. The increase in runoff volume due to urbanization can lead to the erosion of stream banks and bed, road embankments, etc. Figure 1 illustrates an example of stream bank erosion resulting from increased runoff volume.

Fig.1 Stream bank erosion due to the increased runoff volume

The degree of deterioration of stormwater quality in urban areas depends on the pollutant species and load. Suspended solids are considered as the most critical stormwater pollutant, since most other pollutants can be absorbed to their surface. Along with suspended solids, other common stormwater pollutants include nutrients, organic carbon, toxicants and micropollutants.

The composition of wastewater, stormwater and runoff varies widely. This is a partial list of pollutants that may be contained in them:

Chemical or physical pollutants:

• Heavy metals, including mercury, lead, and chromium.

• Organic particles such as feces, hairs, food, vomit, paper fibers, plant material, and humus.

• Soluble organic material such as urea, fruit sugars, soluble proteins, drugs, and pharmaceuticals.

• Inorganic particles such as sand, grit, metal particles, and ceramics.

• Soluble inorganic material such as ammonia, road-salt, sea-salt, cyanide, hydrogen sulfide, thiocyanates, and thiosulfates.

• Macro-solids such as sanitary napkins, nappies/diapers, condoms, needles, children's toys, dead animals or plants.

• Gases such as hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and methane.

• Emulsions such as paints, adhesives, mayonnaise, hair colorants, and emulsified oils.

• Toxins such as pesticides, poisons, and herbicides.

• Pharmaceuticals and hormones and other hazardous substances.

• Thermal pollution from power stations and industrial manufacturers.

Biological pollutants:

If the wastewater contains human feces, as is the case for sewage, then it may also contain pathogens of one of the four types:

• Bacteria (for example Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, Vibrio cholerae).

• Viruses (for example hepatitis A, rotavirus, enteroviruses).

• Protozoa (for example Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum).

• Parasites such as helminths and their eggs (e.g. Ascaris (roundworm), Ancylostoma (hookworm), Trichuris (whipworm)).

For the above indicators, our company has advanced methods and instruments that can measure several parameters at the same time such as gas (GC) and liquid (LC) chromatographies with different detectors such as flame ionization detector (FID), electron capture detector (ECD), mass spectrometry (MS), and ultraviolet detector (UV). They are used to analyze water for specialized chemicals such as pesticides, perfluorinated organic compounds (PFCs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These chemicals are usually present at low concentrations in water and they are usually toxic. Special pretreatment is usually needed for concentrating these chemicals in an organic solvent or on a solid phase that can be used to thermally release the chemicals in the injection port of the analytic instrument. In case the analysis is performed to identify unknown organic compounds in water, more specialized techniques are needed such as GC MS/MS and LC MS/MS. There are also advanced techniques that allow simultaneous analysis of several metals (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, ICP-MS, and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry, ICP-OES) or ion chromatography (IC) at rather low concentrations.

Alfa Chemistry is professional in water quality analysis and we can provide accurate and reliable tests results within the time constraint. We have conducted water analysis and drinking water quality analysis well. Please feel free to contact us if you have any concern or would like us to perform any water quality testing. Check our instruments list to see our capabilities.