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Effects of Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Discharges on a Freshwater Ecosystem—a Case Study on the Ramalhoso River (Portugal)

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Abstract

Sewage discharges constitute severe stress in freshwater ecosystems. The Ramalhoso River belongs to the Tagus River watershed and was chosen for a pilot study on the impact of wastewaters discharges in a freshwater ecosystem and its ability for self-depuration. Twelve water samples were collected along the river and were georeferenced. The first point is located upstream of the first discharge point, the second one corresponding to the discharge flow, and all the other samples located downstream of secondary inflows at approximately equal distances. Three sampling campaigns were conducted during the rainy winter (January), the intermediate conditions (March), and the dry season (June). The following chemical parameters were analyzed: biochemical oxygen demand for 5 days (BOD5), dissolved oxygen concentration (DO), total phosphorus (Ptotal), total nitrogen (Ntotal), pH, temperature, total suspended solids (TSS), microbiological parameters (MP), and flow determination. Dissolved oxygen, BOD5, and TSS were used as indicators of environmental pollution. A coupled hydrodynamic and water dispersion model simulated different pollution scenarios using the QUAL2kw software to construct a water quality model. The simulation results are consistent with field observations and demonstrate that the model has been correctly calibrated, allowing feasibility studies of different treatment schemes and the development of specific monitoring activities.

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Funding

This research was funded by Águas do Centro Enterprise and by the Institute of Earth Sciences (ICT), under contracts UID/GEO/04683/2013 with FCT (Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Câmara Municipal da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

    P. Almeida

  2. Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco | CERNAS | QRural and ICT, Universidade de Évora, Évora, Portugal

    T. Albuquerque

  3. ICT | Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal

    M. Antunes

  4. Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco, Castelo Branco, Portugal

    A. Ferreira

  5. Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia, WA, USA

    G. Pelletier

Authors
  1. P. Almeida
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  2. T. Albuquerque
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  3. M. Antunes
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  4. A. Ferreira
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  5. G. Pelletier
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Gregory Pelletier; Data curation: Pedro Almeida Teresa Albuquerque and Ana Ferreira; Formal analysis: Pedro Almeida, Teresa Albuquerque and Gregory Pelletier; Funding acquisition: Teresa Albuquerque and Margarida Antunes; Investigation: Pedro Almeida, Teresa Albuquerque, Ana Ferreira, and Margarida Antunes; Methodology: Teresa Albuquerque, Margarida Antunes, and Gregory Pelletier; Software: Gregory Pelletier; Supervision, Teresa Albuquerque, and Ana Ferreira; Validation: Pedro Almeida; Visualization: Pedro Almeida; Writing—original draft: Teresa Albuquerque; Writing—review and editing: Pedro Almeida Margarida Antunes and Ana Ferreira

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Correspondence to M. Antunes.

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Almeida, P., Albuquerque, T., Antunes, M. et al. Effects of Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Discharges on a Freshwater Ecosystem—a Case Study on the Ramalhoso River (Portugal). Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 206 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05131-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-05131-1

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