• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.255-260
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• 2008

This study was conducted to analyse the effects of the UFCA for treating polluted water in a reservoir. The UFCA mixes water by circulation of surface and bottom water layers. The circulation supplies oxygen to bottom of the reservoir, resulting in water quality improvement. With a UFCA in use, we surveyed the changes of temperature, pH, transparency, depth, conductivity, DO, COD, BOD, T-N, T-P and Chlorophyll-a for 7 months from Feb. to Aug. in 2004 in our experimental reservoir. There was little difference in the surface and bottom temperatures of the reservoir because of water mixing by the UFCA. However, pH was changed from 7 to 9. The transparency of water was about 80 cm through the all periods. Conductivity was $150\;{\mu}S/cm$ in early Feb., but increased to $270\;{\mu}S/cm$ in early March. Little change was seen in DO with depth, but it was maintained above 6 mg/l in June and July. BOD increased from 2.1 to 12.2 mg/l. The study reservoir did not undergo any eutrophication during the period of our experiment, but the comparison reservoir had an algae-bloom. The COD in the experimental reservoir increased from 5.4 to 14.5 mg/l. The COD concentration of the experimental reservoir was higher than comparison reservoir at the beginning of the study but in August this situation was reversed. SS concentration increased from 13.5 to 23.5 mg/l in Feb., but it fell from between 8.5 to 11.2 mg/l in July. T-N was increased from 1.3 to 4.9 mg/l. It increased up to 3 times in the rainy season as compared to other components. However the comparison reservoir increased up to 40 times higher than the experimental reservoir in the same period. T-P increased from 0.04 to 0.17 mg/l. The ratio of T-N to T-P increased from 20:1 to 40:1 which means that T-P was a growth limiting factor for algae and aquatic plants. Chlorophyll-a increased from 20 to 120 mg/l, and its concentration was correlated with T-P, such that Chlorophyl-a concentration increased with increased of T-P concentration. The concentrations of COD, T-N, T-P and other parameters were higher in the experimental reservoir than in the comparison reservoir but this situation was reversed in July, when the most severe eutophication occurred. The results show that overall the experimental reservoir was greatly remedied by UFCA. The UFCA accelerated the degradation of aquatic organic materials through effective supply of air with up-flow and circulation of water. We conclude that the UFCA can be very effective in aspect of the remediation of water quality incontaminated reservoirs and lakes.