DISSOLVED ORGANIC CARBON (DOC) DEGRADATION DURING RIVERBANK FILTRATION

Abstract

River water quality depends on several factors such as quality of the river water, source of the pollution, characteristics of aquifer material, shape of the aquifer and type of organic matter in surface and groundwater environment. The Ganga river at Haridwar, esthetically not acceptable has been monitored for turbidity and coliform (MPN). Unlike Ganga at Haridwar, river Yamuna at Mathura represents other polluted stretches of rivers. River Yamuna is highly polluted by natural, anthropogenic and industrial sources. Keeping this in view, efficacy of RBF at Mathura has been evaluated by measuring DOC, Color, and UV absorbance in addition to turbidity, MPN and other water quality parameters. Results revel the following: • TOC, UV absorbance at 254 nm and Color of river bed filtered water were nearly 50% of the river water. • Treatment plant i.e. aeration and filtration did not show any further improvement in water quality parameters. • Chlorine demand (Prechlorination) of river water has been found to 41.2 mg/L. • Probability of the formation of disinfection byproducts in case of prechlorination of river is high. • Ozonation instead of chlorination has been evaluated. • Ozonation for 1, 2, 3 and 5 minutes removes DOC, UV absorbance, Color and MPN.