Environmental Engineering
Engr. Heherson S. Cabrera, R.Ch
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Environmental Pollution
Defined as any alteration in the physical, chemical, or biological properties of the environment
(air, water, and land) which adversely affects its aesthetic quality and/or beneficial use.
This lecture is outlined as follows
1. Water Quality Management
2. Solid Waste Management
3. Air Quality Management
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Water Quality Management
Point Source vs Non-Point Source
Point Source Non-Point Source
• Well-defined origin, easily measured, more • Diffuse origin and more transient
constant • Example: agricultural, groundwater
• Example: municipal and industrial
wastewater
Photograph by Kaentian Street
Water usage and classification found at http://water.emb.gov.ph/?page_id=849
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Water Quality Parameters
Physical Chemical Biological
Color pH Coliforms
Odor Hardness DO, ThOD, BOD, COD, TOD,
Turbidity Nitrogen and phosphorus TOC
Temperature Trace metals
Total Solids Proteins
Taste and Smell Carbohydrates
Oils, fats, greases
Surfactants
Phenols
Pesticides and agricultural
chemicals
TDS and TSS
DO
TOC
Radioactivity
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Color
• Indication of the age of sewage
• Fresh sewage is light brownish grey color.
• At a temperature of above 20 °C, sewage will change from fresh to old in 2 - 6 hours.
• The old sewage is converted to dark grey and black color due to anaerobic activities, known as
stale or septic color.
Measurement:
1. Photoelectric colorimeters
2. Visual comparison using Nessler tubes
Uses the APHA color (American Public Health Assoc.)
Also known as Hazen scale, Pt/Co scale, or
yellowness index (1 unit = 1 ppm Pt-Co)
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Odor
• Indicates presence of gas due to decomposition of organic wastes
Odor Compound
Fishy Amines
Ammoniacal Ammonia
Decayed fish Diamines
Rotten eggs Hydrogen sulfide
Skunk Mercaptans
Rotten cabbage Organic sulfides
Fecal Skatole
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Turbidity
• A measure of the clarity of water measured by its light scattering ability
• Clear lake is around 25 NTU while muddy lake can be up to 100 NTU, where NTU =
nephelometric turbidity unit
Measurement:
NTU Nephelometric Turbidity Unit Most often used when referencing the USEPA Method 180.1 or
Standard Methods For the Examination of Water and Wastewater.
Instrument is measuring scattered light from the sample at a 90-
degree angle from the incident light
FNU Formazin Nephelometric Units Most often used when referencing the ISO 7027 (European)
Instrument is measuring scattered light from the sample at a 90-
degree angle from the incident light
FTU Formazin Turbidity Units When formazin was initially adopted as the primary reference
standard
FAU Formazin Attenuation Units Instrument is measuring the decrease in transmitted light through the
sample at an angle of 180 degrees to the incident light
JTU Jackson Turbidity Units Historical unit used when measurements were made visually using a
Jackson Candle Turbidimeter.
Turbidity units can be converted to TSS depending on the sample
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Other Physical Properties
• Temperature – lowers concentration of oxygen in water and increases the rate at which
oxygen-consuming microbes attack organic wastes
• Solids
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pH
• Measure of acidity or alkalinity of water
• Most aquatic organisms survive in a pH of 6-9
• Some of the processes in water quality engineering that require pH monitoring and control are
the following: disinfection, coagulation, softening, biological treatment etc.
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Water Hardness
• Hardness refers to the amount of all divalent cations such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Fe2+, Mn2+
• Carbonate hardness – Ca2+ and Mg2+ associated with bicarbonate and carbonate, also
called temporary hardness
• Non-carbonate hardness – Ca2+ and Mg2+ associated with other ions such as Cl-, NO3-,
SO42-, also called permanent hardness
𝑻𝑯 = 𝑪𝑯 + 𝑵𝑪𝑯
𝑨𝒍𝒌𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚 = 𝑯𝑪𝑶− 𝟐−
𝟑 + 𝑪𝑶𝟑 + 𝑶𝑯− − 𝑯+
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Nitrogen and Phosphorus
• These are basic components of fertilizers along with potassium (NPK)
• Excessive amounts can leas to algal bloom and eutrophication
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Trophic State Index
• oligotrophic (TSI 0–40, having the least amount of biological productivity, "good" water
quality);
• mesoeutrophic (TSI 40–60, having a moderate level of biological productivity, "fair" water
quality); or
• eutrophic to hypereutrophic (TSI 60–100, having the highest amount of biological
productivity, "poor" water quality).
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Heavy Metals
Plumbism
Lead Argyria
Silver
Minamata Disease
Mercury
Methemoglobinemia
Nitrates
Itai-Itai Disease
(Ouch-Ouch)
Cadmium
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Bioaccumulation vs Biomagnification
Bioconcentration is defined as occurring when uptake
from the water is greater than excretion
Bioaccumulation occurs within a trophic level, and is the
increase in the concentration of a substance in certain
tissues of organisms' bodies due to absorption from food
and the environment.
Biomagnification, also known as bioamplification or
biological magnification, is any concentration of a toxin,
such as pesticides, in the tissues of tolerant organisms at
successively higher levels in a food chain
Examples of bioaccumulants:
POP, PCB, PAH, DDT, heavy metals
https://cimioutdoored.org/bioaccumulation-and-biomagnification-
increasingly-concentrated-problems/
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Examples of Bioaccumulants
• POP – persistent organic pollutants
• PCB – polychlorinated biphenyls
• PAH – polyaromatic hydrocarbons
• DDT – dichloro-diphenyltrichloroethane
• EDC – endocrine disrupting chemicals
A comparison of the structures of the natural estrogen
hormone estradiol (left) and one of the nonyl-phenols
(right), a xenoestrogen endocrine disruptor
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Lake Thermal Stratification
Limnology – study of inland aquatic ecosystems
Oceanography – study of outland aquatic ecosystems
Thermocline – the point of greatest difference in density
Different layers of
density
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Measures of Organic Content
Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Actual quantity of free O2
Theoretical Oxygen Demand (ThOD) Amount of O2 needed to completely oxidize an organic matter
whose chemical formula is known
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) Amount of O2 needed by microorganisms to decompose
biodegradable organics at a specified time (5 days), temperature
(20°) and pH (7).
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) Amount of O2 needed to oxidize organics using strong oxidizing
agents (KMnO4 or K2Cr2O7) in acid media
Total Oxygen Demand (TOD) Organics are converted into stable end products in a Pt-catalyzed
combustion chamber and is determined by monitoring the O2
content present in the products
Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Organic matter is oxidized in a high-temperature furnace to
convert C to CO2
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Kinetics
Where L0 = ultimate BOD and k1 = deoxygenation constant
𝒌𝑻 = 𝒌𝟐𝟎°𝑪 𝜣𝑻−𝟐𝟎°𝑪
Θ = 1.047
Θ = 1.056 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝 20 − 30°𝐶
Θ = 1.135 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑝 4 − 20°𝐶
Above equation is based used to get the deoxygenation
constant at different temperatures, based on Arrhenius
law
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DO Sag
Streeter-Phelps Equation
Kd = deoxygenation rate constant
Kr = reaeration rate constant
Da = initial oxygen deficit
Dt = oxygen deficit at any time t
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Critical Time
• Time at which the deficit is a maximum (dD/dt = 0)
If kd = kr:
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Wastewater Treatment Process
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Legislations
• RA 9275 – Clean Water Act of the Philippines
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Solid Waste Management
Terminology
• Integrated Solid Waste Management System (ISWM) – the selection and application of
suitable techniques, techniques, and management programs to achieve specific waste
management objectives
• Route balancing – process of determining the optimum number of services that constitutes a
fair day's work and dividing the collection task among the crews so that all have equal loads
• Heuristic routing – process of determining the path or route for the collection vehicle to follow
as it collects waste from each service in a specific area
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SWM Hierarchy
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Legislations
• RA 9003 Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000
• RA 6969 Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990
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Air Quality Management
Criteria Pollutants
• Established by US National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
• CO, Pb, NO2, PM, tropospheric ozone, SOx, CFCs (Table 22-1 PCHE8)
• Not to be confused with principal pollutants established by EPA: CO, NOx, PM,
SO2, VOC, Pb (also in PCHE8, Table 22-14)
• Stratospheric ozone is good ozone as it forms a protective layer that shields
us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays
• Tropospheric ozone is ground level ozone, is a harmful pollutant and is the
major constituent of photochemical smog
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Global Warming Potential (GWP)
• Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of
a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide
(CO2).
• GWP of CO2 is 1
• Global temperature potential (GTP) is a measure of the temperature change at the end of
that time period relative to CO2
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Particulate Pollutants
• Aerosol when dispersed in gaseous medium
Dust Formed from mechanical disintegration of solids, 1mm to 100 or 200 um
Smoke Derived from the burning of organic materials; 0.01-1um
Fumes Formed by processes such as sublimation, condensation,
or combustion, generally at relatively high temperatures. 0.1 – 1 um
Mist Condensation of water or other vapors on suitable nuclei, giving a suspension of
small liquid droplets, or by the atomization of liquids; 2-200 nm
Fog Same as mist but denser
Drizzle or rain Droplets of mist and fog becoming greater than 200 um in size
Haze A phenomenon when above aerosols obscure the clarity of the sky
Smog Associated with photochemical formation of ozone
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Air Pollution Control Equipment
APCD Driving Force
Settling Chamber Gravity
Cyclone Collector Centrifugal force
Scrubber Chemical affinity
Filter (e.g. HEPA filter) Pressure drop
Electrostatic Precipitator Electric potential difference
(most efficient)
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Lapse rate
• Variation of temperature with height above the ground
• Dry-adiabatic lapse rate (DALR) is the temperature change for a rising parcel of
dry air. The dry-adiabatic lapse rate can be approximated as −1°C per 100 m,
or dT/dz = −10−2 °C/m
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Lapse rate characteristics
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Legislation
• Republic Act No. 8749, known as the Philippine Clean Air Act
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International Agreements
Convention Objectives
Kyoto Protocol Reduce GHG emissions
United Nations Framework Convention on Stabilize GHG concentrations in the atmosphere,
Climate Change (Earth Summit) – Rio de produced the Agenda 21
Janeiro
Montreal Protocol Phasing out of ozone depleting substances and
CFCs
Millennium Summit of the United Nations in Eight millennium development goals by 2015, #7
2000 is to ensure sustainable development
Stockholm Convention Eliminate or restrict the production and use of
persistent organic pollutants
https://www.environbusiness.com/events/conventions
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