Effects of discharge of municipal waste on water quality of the lower Mississippi River |
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Authors: | Jeffrey S Hanor |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Geology, Louisiana State University, 70808 Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
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Abstract: | The effects of discharge of municipal wastes on water quality within the lower Mississippi River below Old River have been
reevaluated using published water quality data in the Louisiana reach of the river for the water years 1974–1984. A novel
graphical technique has facilitated the evaluation of upriver controls on water quality and the identification of sources
and sinks along the lower Mississippi. Comparison of calculated annual fluxes at different downstream monitoring stations
has simplified some of the problems inherent in evaluating analyses of samples collected from different water masses during
a typical sampling run.
The absolute concentrations of chloride, nitrite plus nitrate, total phosphorous, dissolved oxygen, BOD, and COD are all strongly
dependent on processes occurring upriver. Nonpoint influx of materials from agricultural wastes and natural plant debris may
be the dominant upstream sources of N, P, BOD, and COD. Increases in chloride and phosphorous downstream within the Lower
Mississippi appear to be caused by discharge of industrial wastes. Nitrogen fluxes decrease downriver, except where there
is local discharge of high-N, high-P industrial waste water, possibly from fertilizer plants. Removal of N and increases in
BOD may be due in part to biological uptake. High river discharge rates and efficient, natural processes of reaeration maintain
high oxygen saturation levels.
With the exception of an increase in bacterial count, the discharge of municipal waste into the Mississippi River in Louisiana
appears to have had no significant effect on water quality, a finding consistent with the earlier U.S. Geological Survey study
of Wells (1980). It would be highly desirable for future mass balance studies if existing water quality programs on the Mississippi
River were to adopt a Lagrangian sampling approach. |
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