faculty of resource science and technology quality in disturbed and...water quality in disturbed and...
TRANSCRIPT
WATER QUALITY IN DISTURBED AND UNDISTURBED SITES IN
ASAP, BELAGA
GRACE AK STEPHEN (18464)
Bachelor of Science with Honours
(Aquatic Resource Science and Management)
2010
Faculty of Resource Science and Technology
WATER QUALITY IN DISTURBED AND UNDISTURBED SITES IN
ASAP, BELAGA
GRACE AK STEPHEN
This project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Bachelor of Science with Honours
(Aquatic Resource Science and Management)
Faculty of Resource Science and Technology
UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA SARAWAK
2010
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that no portion of this dissertation has been submitted in support of an
application for another degree of qualification of this or any other university or institution of
higher learning.
………………………..
Grace ak Stephen
Aquatic Resource Science and Management Program
Department of Aquatic Science
Faculty of Resource Science and Technology
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
i
Table of Contents
Table of Contents....................................................................................................... i
List of Tables............................................................................................................. iii
List of Figure............................................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgement..................................................................................................... iv
Abstract..................................................................................................................... v
1.0 Introduction......................................................................................................... 1
2.0 Literature Review................................................................................................
2.1 Water quality and environmental issues on water quality..........................
2.2 Impact of agriculture or oil palm plantation on water quality....................
2.3 Source of pollutants in the rivers.................................................................
2.4 The trends of water pollution on rivers in Malaysia....................................
2.5 Classification of water quality.....................................................................
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3
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3.0 Materials and Methods........................................................................................
3.1 Study site.................................................................................................
3.2 In-situ analysis..........................................................................................
3.3 Laboratory analysis...................................................................................
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4.0 Results................................................................................................................
4.1 In-situ parameters........................................................................................
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ii
4.2 Total suspended solids (TSS).......................................................................
4.3 Biological oxygen demand (BOD)…...........................................................
4.4 Nutrients.......................................................................................................
4.5 Chlorophyll a................................................................................................
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21
4.6 Comparison among three types of land uses................................................ 21
5.0 Discussion...........................................................................................................
5.1 Temperature.................................................................................................
5.2 Dissolved oxygen (DO) and biological oxygen demand (BOD).................
5.3 Nutrients, chlorophyll a and pH..................................................................
5.4 Total suspended solids (TSS)......................................................................
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24
25
26
26
6.0 Conclusion.......................................................................................................... 28
7.0 References........................................................................................................... 29
iii
List of Tables
Table 1: Temperature, conductivity, TDS, DO, depth and pH recorded in all stations..... 18
Table 2: Total suspended solids, biological oxygen demand, nutrients and chlorophyll a
in all stations........................................................................................................
20
Table 3: Water quality parameters for the three different types of land uses.....................
23
List of Figure
Figure 1: Map showing the eight stations in the study area..........................................
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iv
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my appreciation to the following individuals in bringing this
project to a successful completion. Firstly, I would like to express my thank you to Dr. Lee
Nyanti for his dedication, invaluable advice and untiring help in the preparation of this study. I
also would like to convey my appreciation to Mr. Jongkar Grinang for his guidance and moral
support during fieldtrip. I would also like to thank the lab assistant, Mr. Harris Norman @
Mustafa Kamal for his guidance and preparation for fieldtrip and lab works.
I would like to thank all of my coursemates especially Emmy Goh Ling Ling and
Runin Paing for helping me in the fieldtrip and the time that you spend with me. To my
family, thank you for being so understanding and patient with me through my completion of
the study.
Finally, I would like to thank Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, especially Faculty of
Resource Science and Technology for providing the facilities to carry out the study.
v
Water Quality in Disturbed and Undisturbed Sites in Asap, Belaga.
Grace ak Stephen
Aquatic Resource Science and Management
Faculty of Resource Science and Technology
University Malaysia Sarawak
ABSTRACT
A study on water quality was carried at eight selected stations in disturbed and undisturbed
sites in Asap, Belaga in three types of land uses; newly developed oil palm plantation, existing
7-year old oil palm plantation and 20-year logged-over-forest. The objective of the study is to
determine water quality in disturbed and undisturbed sites in Asap, Belaga. Data such as pH,
dissolved oxygen and temperature was recorded in-situ whereas nutrients, biological oxygen
demand, total suspended solids and chlorophyll a were analyzed at the laboratory. The result
showed the degradation of water quality which had been affected by the activity of oil palm
plantation. Among all of the parameters, total suspended solids, temperature and phosphorus
shows the highest value but low in dissolved oxygen in the newly developed oil palm
plantation area (MPOB) compared to the other types of land uses. High total suspended solids
in the water shows that the activity of land clearing affected the water quality of disturbed
sites.
Keyword: water quality, total suspended solids, dissolved oxygen, phosphorus, land clearing
ABSTRAK
Kajian ini telah dijalankan di lapan stesen yang terpilih di kawasan yang terganggu dan
tidak terganggu di Asap, Belaga, terutamaya di tiga jenis penggunaan tanah iaitu kawasan
yang baru dijadikan ladang kelapa sawit, kawasan perladangan kelapa sawit yang telah
wujud selama 7 tahun dan 20 tahun hutan sekunder. Objektif kajian adalah untuk menentukan
kualiti air di kawasan yang terganggu dan kawasan yang tidak terganggu di Asap, Belaga.
Data seperti pH, keterlarutan oksigen dan suhu diambil secara in-situ manakala analisa
nutrient, permintaan oksigen secara biologi, jumlah pepejal terampai, dan klorofil a dianalisa
di makmal. Hasil keputusan menunjukan kualiti air yang rendah di stesen yang dipengaruhi
oleh aktiviti perladangan kelapa sawit. Hutan sekunder yang bakal menjadi kawasan
perladangan kelapa sawit mencatatkan jumlah yang tertinggi jumlah pepejal terampai dan
fosforus tetapi rendah dalam keterlarutan oksigen antara ketiga-tiga penggunaan kawasan.
Peningkatan ini disebabkan oleh aktiviti pembukaan kawasan untuk perladangan telah
memberi kesan kepada kualiti air di kawasan yang dibangunkan.
Kata kunci: kualiti air, jumlah pepejal terampai, keterlarutan oksigen, fosforus, pembukaan
kawasan
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1.0 Introduction
Water is important to most of the living organism from complex to the simplest type of
organism. Water also has played an important role in the development of major civilization in
the world. From time to time, water resource has been taken for granted by human society
since it is considered an abundant resource. Although the atmospheric rainfall is the common
source of water resource, water supply is significantly acquired from the water surface such as
lakes and rivers (Kailasam, 2007).
River is known as a large stream of water flowing in a bed or channel and emptying
into the ocean, sea, lake, or another stream. Rivers is useful to all living organism and serves
many purposes in human daily life such as public utilities, recreational, irrigation and drainage
(Allan, 1995). However, nowadays rivers are constantly being polluted by human activities
such as oil palm plantation.
Deforestation is not only related to the forest conversion which include the process of
land clearing but also the continuous process of declining in the function of the intermediate
phases of forest degradation and forest fragmentation which lead to the actual deforestation
(Reinhardt et al., 2001). It will not only cause the ecological impact on the river system but
also to the forest system. Example of deforestation that is related to the oil palm plantation is
Mega Oil Palm Project in Kalimantan which located at the border of Kalimantan-Sarawak
(Reinhardt et al., 2007).
The common pollutant in the river when it came to the palm oil plantation are the
effluent of the palm oil mill and the fertilizers that normally increases the nutrients in the river.
According to Brown et al. (2005), plantation had caused pollution on the soil and water with
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pesticides and untreated palm oil mill effluent. The land clearing increases the erosion on the
banks of river. In other word, the sedimentation in river was due to loss of the buffering zone
and this lead to increase turbidity in water.
The objective of this study was to determine the water quality in disturbed and
undisturbed sites in Asap, Belaga, specifically on the three different types of land uses such as
the proposed area to be developed for MPOB oil palm plantation, the existing 7-years old oil
palm plantation and the 20-year logged over forest.
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2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Water quality and environmental issue on water quality
The definition of water quality is a complex issue and it is one of the methods in
clarifying the meaning of pollution that occurs in the water system such as river, stream and
marine. The term pollution is not only defined as chemical and biological contamination but
also other parameters such as temperature, turbidity and dissolved oxygen (Boiling, 1994).
The problems of water pollution are obvious, but often the evidence isn’t. When a river
is so dirty that it smells and looks bad, or isn’t safe to drink, we tend to take action to clean it
up. But when a river looks clean, or when the less visible and substantial indices of water
quality deteriorate, we tend to overlook them until there is significantly impact on the
biological health of river, or on people who use it. By then, river dependent species may be
endangered or dead (Boiling, 1994).
Human activities have brought significant impact to the river system. The human use
of the land such as the activity of agriculture and aquaculture have increased the removal of
the original vegetation that cover the land before the progress of the activity took place and the
demolition of mechanism that are used to maintain or conserved nitrogen and phosphorus in
the land ecosystem. Therefore, the impact of the water quality of the river is merely dependant
on the types of the vegetation that cover the land. The utilization of fertilizers also influences
the water quality of the river and depends on the amount of the fertilizer that was used (Moss,
1998).
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2.2 Impact of oil palm plantation on water quality
Oil palm plantation is widely planted over Borneo. Oil palm plantation is planted either
in small or big scale and may cause environmental impact especially in term of the destruction
of ecological habitat, alteration of hydrological system of the area and are part of the cause to
waterway pollution. In the other words, there is an increasing amount of total suspended solids
and high levels of agro-chemicals in the water (EIA Guidelines Oil Palm Plantation
Development, 2000).
In the assessment of the environmental impact on the oil palm plantation, soil erosion
contributes to the water pollution. Soil erosion is a result of the oil palm plantation as the
erode soil will be deposited in the waterways. The washing runoff laden will increase the
amount of total suspended solids (TSS) in the river or stream and the turbidity of the water,
which can alter the damage in the aquatic life. As there is an increase in soil erosion, and are
been transferred into the waterways bed, the channel capacity will be greatly reduced. The loss
of the soil to the river system is expected to be reduced after the palm trees are mature and
ground vegetation is recovering once more (EIA Guidelines Oil Palm Plantation Development,
2000).
According to the report in the Friends of Earth, LifeMosaic and Sawit Watch (2008),
the impact of the oil palm plantation on the water supply and quality only received limited
attention. Based on the report of the local communities across Indonesia, there is reduction in
the quantity as well as quality of the water supply which means the water is polluted. Survey
conducted in the local communities indicated that 74% of the respondent mentioned that the
water supply has become worse after the oil palm was planted.
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The oil palm plantation also released the effluent where the source is from the palm oil
mills into the river. The effluent provides the production of the microorganisms that will
utilize most of the dissolved oxygen as their population grows. The biological oxygen demand
(BOD) that was consumed by the microorganisms for their respiration is one of the methods to
measure the organic pollution load of water. High BOD level in the water shows the
microorganisms feeding on the pollution increase the use of the dissolved oxygen that may be
able to cause the foul smell and mass of fish death due to the depletion of oxygen in the water
(Friends of Earth, LifeMosaic, Sawit Watch, 2008 & Webster et al., 2005).
Palm oil mill effluent released into the water bodies of Sungai Kundang, Selangor
shows an increasing level of BOD due to the discharge of the effluent into the river exceeded
the limits of 100mg/l (Yaakob et al., 2008).
The POME (Palm Oil Mill Effluent) is the source of the pollution in the rivers due to
the processing of the oil palm fruit. Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB), after harvested must be
processed within 24 hours to maintain the quality of the fruits’ contain. In order to maintain
the quality of the fruit, one CPO (Crude Palm Oil) will be built within an area of 4000-5000
hectares of plantation. There are hundreds of the palm oil mills across the countryside of
Malaysia. POME is accountable for the pollution in many rivers. Studies on the effluent of
palm oil mills found that the effluent contains mixture of water, crushed shells, and fat residue
which is the outcome after 24 hours of harvest (Brown et al., 2005 & Webster et al., 2005).
Most of the effluent was released into the water bodies with or without being treated
well. In order to save budget, the plantation companies usually dump the palm oil mill effluent
directly into the receiving water. Most of the CPO mills have an outdoor basin in which
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POME will be discharged into the basin for certain period before being discharge into the
river. However, the basin is easily overflowed due to the heavy rainfall or extensive
production but some of the companies release the effluent directly to the river. The effluent
causes the water to turn brown in color, smelly and slimy. This has major effect on the
ecology where fish and other aquatic animals are killed (Brown et al., 2005 & Webster et al.,
2005).
2.3 Source of pollutant in the rivers
Nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are applied to promote the
growth of the plant. However, when the application of the nutrient to the plant is excessive, it
is no longer beneficial to the environment but become pollution to the water resource and this
indicate the water quality in the low level (Barrios, 2000).
The main impact of agriculture on the water quality of drainage-ways, stream, rivers or
lakes is the agriculture runoff or wastewater (Bellow, 2000 & Gaballah et al., 2005). Growth
of the crop can be affected due to the runoff and erosion by removing the nutrients from the
surface layer of the soil. The usage of the fertilizer in excess amount to the surface soil has
increased the risk of the contamination to the water when the rainwater or wind transported the
materials to the nearest drainage-way or stream.
The excess of the dissolved nutrients transported by runoff have greater impact on
algae growth and lake transported by erosion. Based on the studies done by Rukeh et al.
(2006), the mean of three types of mineral in the water; nitrates, phosphates and sulphates
level in the river is higher especially in the middle of the Orgodo River in Nigeria than at
upstream. The mean is higher in the middle river than upstream imply that the agriculture in
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the area have great influence on the quality of the river. Phosphate and nitrates are important
element in plant growth and eutrophication of lakes (Bellow, 2000).
In term of phosphorus, Bellow (2000) reported that farms with the highest usage of
fertilizer cause the level of the phosphorus in the soil to exceed the capacity of soils to bind the
phosphorus. As phosphorus is no longer bound by the soil, it is easy to be dissolved and
removed from the field by runoff water.
As the concentrations of the phosphorus were beyond the range of the lakes or streams
or rivers that were capable to recycle the nutrients in the environment, the excess of the
nutrients will trigger the algal bloom. The algal bloom will increase the oxygen demand in the
water and it will affect other aquatic organisms especially the fishes (Eisakhani &
Malakahmud, 2009).
2.4 The trends of water pollution in rivers in Malaysia
According to Muyibi et al. (2007), phosphate in rivers in Malaysia exceed the limit of
0.1 mg/l in River Sepang in Melaka, and River Setiu, Ibai, Dungun and Paka in Terengganu,
as well as River Baloi, Pontian Endau and Skudai of Johor.
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2.5 Classification of water quality
According to the Department of Environment of Malaysia (DOE), the classification of
rivers is used to identify the problem of the areas and develop appropriate strategies to protect
rivers and water quality management. The classification of water quality is known as National
Water Quality Standard (NWQS).
Water Quality Index (WQI) is a method that combined some of the water quality
parameters into one concise value and it will represent the quality of the water of the rivers.
WQI is also defined in the number scale from 0 to 100 that will indicate the water quality.
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3.0 Materials and Methods
3.1 Study site
Sampling was carried out at eight selected stations in Sebanyak River and Be’raan
River. Both rivers are tributaries of Batang Belaga. The area surrounding both rivers either an
oil palm plantation (7-year old), secondary forest that is planned for oil palm plantation of
MPOB (Malaysian Palm Oil Berhad) or 20-year logged over forest (Figure 1).
Two stations were located in an existing oil palm plantation that is 7 years old, two
stations are inside MPOB area that is just being developed and another four stations were at
the logged over forest.
3.2 In-situ measurement
Sampling was carried in 9-11th
October 2009. Water sample were collected using Van
Dorn bottle (2L). At each station, triplicates samples were taken. In-situ measurements were
also carried out at each station. Parameters that were taken are dissolved oxygen, temperature,
pH, water transparency, water current, and depth of the river.
YSI Horiba was used to measure dissolved oxygen, temperature and pH of the water.
Water current was measured by using flow meter and secchi disc was used to measure the
transparency of the water. Ruler was used to measure the depth of the river because the river
was shallow. All readings were taken in triplicates.
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S1
11
s
S2
S6 S7
S8 S5
S4
S3
Figure 1: Map showing the eight stations in the study area.
------- Project area
River
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3.3 Laboratory Analysis
Analyses of biological oxygen demand (BOD) total suspended solids, nutrients and
chlorophyll a were carried out at FSTS laboratory. The laboratory works were carried out as
soon as the water sample arrives to avoid any degradation on the water samples especially for
nutrient analysis.
3.3.1 Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)
During the field work, a triplicates of 350ml water sample from each station was kept
in BOD bottles and wrapped with aluminium foil. The initial DO values from each station
were recorded by using YSI and the samples was kept for five days. The DO value was re-
measured after 5 days and the data was recorded. BOD5 calculation is as follow (APHA,
1998):
BOD5 (mg/l) = DO1 – DO5
where, DO1 = Initial DO (mg/l)
DO5 = Final DO (mg/l)
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3.3.2 Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
APHA (1998) standard protocol was used to measure the total suspended solids in the
water samples. First, filter papers was soaked with distilled water and dried at 103-105 °C for
overnight. The initial weight of filter paper was recorded. A 500ml of water sample from each
station were filtered using these filter papers and dried at the same temperature overnight.
Each of the filter paper was weighed until reaching a constant weight. The increased weight
represented the total suspended solids in the samples. Total suspended solids calculation is as
follow:
TSS (mg/l) = (A-B)
C
A = Weight of dried residue + filter paper (mg)
B = Weight of dried filter paper (mg)
C = Volume of water filtered (l)
3.3.3 Nutrients Analysis
Before the water samples were used in nutrient analysis, the water samples were
filtered. The filtered water was kept in the refrigerator at 4°C or below if the water samples
were to be analyzed within 24 to 48 hours. The water samples were left at the room
temperature before they were analyzed.
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3.3.3.1 Phosphorus
The concentration of phosphorus was determined with the method of 8408 or Phos Ver
6 (0 to 2.50 mg/l PO4 ³-). In an acid medium, orthophosphate reacted with the molybdate to
produce a phosphomolybdate complex. Then, acid ascorbic reduced the complex and gave an
intense molybdenum blue color as it outcome.
3.3.3.2 Nitrate - nitrogen
The concentration of nitrate - nitrogen was determined with the method 8192 or known
as Cadmium Reduction Method (0 to 0.40 mg/l NO3-N) and the wavelength is set at 507 nm.
Nitra Ver 6 was added into 30ml of water sample and shook for 3 minutes. Next, the sample
was allowed to settle down for 2 minutes. Then, 25ml of the same water sample was placed
into the sample cell and Nitra Ver 3 was added to it. Then, in 10 minutes, the reaction began
and nitrate value was measured after the reaction ended. The present of cadmium metal
reduced nitrates in the sample into nitrite. Then, the nitrite ions reacted with sulfanilic acid in
the acid medium to form an intermediate diazonium salt, where it gave an outcome of a pink
colored product after couples to chromotropic aced. Before recording the nitrate value, one
blank sample was prepared using the same water sample to standardize the nitrate reading.
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3.3.3.3 Ammonia-nitrogen
The concentration of ammonia-nitrogen was determined with the method 8038 or
Nessler Method (0 to 2.50 mg/l NH3-N). The water sample was placed in one of the sample
cell and the other sample cell was added with the deionizer water and was considered as a
blank cell. The Polyvinyl Alcohol Dispersing Agents and Nessler Reagent was added into the
sample and it reacted with the ammonium ions. It gave an outcome in the form of yellow color
proportional to the ammonia concentration. The analysis was done using the wavelength of
425nm and the result was recorded.
3.4 Chlorophyll a
Water sample was filtered through the membrane filter by using the atmospheric
vacuum. A few drops of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) was added during the filtration.
Then, the membrane filter was grounded and mixed with 10ml of 90% acetone in the test tube.
Then the test tube was covered by aluminum foil for 24 hours and placed in the refrigerator at
2°C. Next, the chlorophyll extracts was transfered into the centrifuge tube and centrifuged at
3000 rpm for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, the supernatant from the mixture was filled into a
1cm path length quartz cuvette. By using spectrophotometer, the supernatant was determined
by the absorbance of the chlorophyll a at 750nm, 664nm, and 647nm and 630nm wavelength.
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Chlorophyll a calculation is as below (APHA,1998):
Chlorophyll a (ug/l) = 11.85E664 – 1.54E647 – 0.08E630
Where, E = absorbance at different wavelength – value for 750nm
ug/l chlorophyll a / l = Ca x v
V x L
Ca= chlorophyll a
v = volume of acetone (ml)
V = volume of water sample (L)
L = length of cuvette path (cm)
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4.0 Results
4.1 In-situ parameters
From Table 1, the water temperature ranged from 25.1°C in Station 6 to 26.5°C in
Station 1. Among the stations that located in the study area, Station 1 has the highest value of
the water temperature. There were no significant differences among the stations where
p > 1.000.
The conductivity of the water ranged from 93.0µg/m to 418.0µg/m in the study area.
Station 1 has the highest value of conductivity. However, there were no significant differences
among all of the stations where p > 0.05.
Total dissolved solids in the water column ranged from 0.06g/l to 0.26g/l in all of the
stations. Station 1 has the highest value of the total dissolved solids and, there were significant
difference among Station 1, 2 and 6 where p < 0.00 except for Station 3,4,5,7 and 8 has no
significant differences among the stations where p > 0.116.
The level of dissolved oxygen ranged from 6.17 mg/l to 7.15 mg/l. Station 2 has the
highest level of dissolved oxygen in the water among all of the stations. There were significant
differences among the stations 1, 2 and 6 where p < 0.001 except for Station 3,4,5,7 and 8
where p > 0.065 compared to the other stations.
The pH of the water ranged from 7.31 to 7.65. Station 3 has the highest value of pH
among all of the stations. There were no significant differences among the stations where p >
0.278