• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.423-430
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• 2008

As of September 2008,45 Automatic Water Quality Monitoring Systems (AWQMS) have been installed at different sites on the 4 rivers to detect early the presence of pollutants in water and to issue an alarm. We count the number of issuing alarms by AWQMS, however, we will find the alarm has hardly been issued. The reasons for the scarcity of alarm issue are extensively being examined. The National Institute of Environmental Research attributes wrong alarm criteria for each AWQMS station to one the reasons. In this study, a suggestion has been made to modify the current alarm criteria to correspond with characteristics of river water quality. The current system with only two criteria (low and high) should be replaced as four-criteria systems (low, medium, high, and severe) based on cases of other advanced countries and stream conditions of Korea. The highest value of data collected for 5 years was suggested as the alarm criteria for each parameter. Meanwhile the alarm criteria for VOCs, phenol and heavy metals were established as same as drinking water quality criteria.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.985-992
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• 2007

There are about 40,000 chemicals used in Korea and 300 new types of chemicals are added to the list every year, influencing quality of air, soil and water. Water quality standards that serve as the basis for water quality management have been proved inefficient and insufficient compared to those of advanced countries. This study aims to improve the existing water quality standards. Most importantly, the water quality standards need to take into account not only protection of human health but also aquatic resources. To that end, water quality criteria need to be set by monitoring each watershed every year and conducting risk assessment. Criteria for human health are set at $10^{-6}$ cancer risk level, and for aquatic life at conservative level, adopting the methodology of the U.S. and Australia, respectively. After carrying out technical and economic feasibility studies, more conservative criteria will be used to decide final water quality standards. The development of this system to establish integrated water quality standards for both human health and aquatic resources protection is urgently needed.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.121-127
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• 2015

The objective of this study is to suggest the water quality criteria of total nitrogen in order to efficiently manage the nutrient pollution in the stream. For this, correlations between water quality parameters were examined using the water quality data collected from the water quality monitoring network in the four rivers between 2003 and 2012. T-N showed positive correlations with T-P (0.636), COD (0.577), BOD (0.574), TOC (0.440), and SS (0.367). The statistical analysis including percentile analysis for the T-N and T-P concentrations was utilized to develop the water quality criteria of T-N. The feasibility of the suggested water quality criteria was evaluated by calculating the achievement rate to water quality target at the representative points in mid-watershed, then the draft water quality standard of T-N was suggested. The suggested water quality standard of T-N in the stream may be used to efficiently control the nutrient pollution in the public water body.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.203-217
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• 2013

This study looked at how to establish effluent limitation standards for formaldehyde, a toxic chemical widely used in industries. To this end, we reviewed Water Quality Based Effluent Limitation (WQBEL), Technology Based Effluent Limitation (TBEL), and water quality criteria for protection of human health and aquatic organism. Based on the results, we estimated formaldehyde effluent limitation standards appropriate to control water quality of industrial wastewater in Korea. However, this study has limits due to the lack of some data necessary in estimating formaldehyde effluent limitation. For example, although water quality criteria based on non-carcinogenic properties of formaldehyde were calculated, those based on carcinogenic properties were not be able to estimate because of the absence of applicable cancer potency factor q1. Without applicable factor, we calculated water quality standards for formaldehyde based on water quality criteria of advanced countries including the United States, while with no water quality standard we referred to applicable drinking water quality standards of other countries. For eco-toxicity based on water quality criteria, proper figures could not be calculated since there have been few reliable data.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.364-370
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• 2011

Water quality criteria for human health protection are derived based on the human health risk assessment. Water quality criteria in Korean freshwater bodies have been derived according to the equations developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The equations include the fish intake parameter, which is very important factor that significantly influences on the criteria derivation. So far, several fish intake values were used in human health risk assessment for water quality standards and effluent standards. However, these values are not consistent and they refer to various sources. Therefore, there is a need to suggest the most appropriate value of fish intake parameter to derive freshwater quality criteria in Korea. In this study, national and international fish intake values were widely collected and evaluated to select the adequate value of fish intake parameter that can be applied in Korea. The USEPA presented fish intake parameter as the 17.5 g/day for general adults and sport fishers and 142.4 g/day for subsistence fishers. In Korean reports, wide range values of 2 to 67.7 g/day were suggested as fish intake value. These values included finfish and shellfish intakes in common but had various habits. This study found that the 52.4 g/day suggested in Korean Exposure Factors Handbook published by the Ministry of Environment in 2007 seemed to be the suitable fish intake parameter to derive the freshwater quality criteria in Korea. The value is based on water corrected intakes of finfish and shellfish present in freshwater and coastal areas. We expect that this report can be useful to select suitable fish intake value in human health risk assessment for establishing freshwater quality standard in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.356-365
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• 2021

Background: Concerns have been raised regarding the criteria of groundwater, in particular in Gwangwon-do Province where many residents drink groundwater due to the poor supply of tap water and a high nonconformity rate with water quality criteria nationwide. Objectives: Water quality monitoring and risk assessment were conducted for groundwater in Hoengseong, Gangwon-do Province. Methods: A total of 46 items required for meeting drinking water criteria were analyzed from 258 samples collected from March 2017 through August 2018 (152 sites in 2017 and 106 sites in 2018). Risk assessment was conducted for two non-carcinogens (F^- and NO₃-N), and one carcinogen (i.e., arsenic) based on their high nonconformity to water quality criteria. Results: Water quality analysis revealed that the total proportion of nonconformities was determined to be 27.9%. The nonconformity rate for each content item is as follows: total colony counts (1.6%), total coliform (6.2%), Escherichia coli (1.2%), F^- (8.1%), arsenic (4.7%), NO₃-N (8.1%), pH (1.2%), manganese (0.4%), and turbidity (5.8%). Risk assessment indicated that fluoride induced a hazard quotient greater than 1 with the 95% UCL (Upper Confidence Limit) concentration of the total 258 sites and average, median, and 95% UCL concentrations of nonconformity sites. For NO₃-N, there was no human health risk. For arsenic, the excess cancer risk exceeded the acceptable cancer risk of 1×10^-6 with the average and 95% UCL concentrations of total 258 sites and average, median, and 95% UCL concentrations of nonconformity sites. Conclusions: This study suggests that it is necessary to expand water quality monitoring of groundwater and conduct a more detailed risk assessment in order to establish a health care plan for the residents of Hoengseong, Gangwon-do Province.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.592-597
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• 2008

Current water quality standard (WQS) in Korea is based on the protection of human health, not considering the protection of aquatic organisms. Most of chemicals can be toxic to ecological biota as well as human. Health of aquatic biota is closely related to the human health via food chain, therefore ecological risk based-WQS needs to be developed to protect the aquatic ecosystem. In this study, we selected the 31 chemicals in the Project entitled 'Development of integrated methodology for evaluation of water environment'. The methodology for calculating water quality criteria was derived from the Australian and New Zealand processes for deriving guideline trigger value for aquatic ecosystem. The available ecotoxicity data were collected from US EPA's ECOTOXicology Database (ECOTOX), TOX-2000 Database, European Chemicals Bureau (ECB)'s International Uniform Chemical Information Database (IUCLID) and Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)'s report 'Ambient Water Quality Criteria (AWQC)'. The aquatic toxicity data for the Korean species were selected for risk assessment to reflect the Korean water environment. The monitoring values were calculated from the water quality monitoring data four main Korean rivers. We suggested the order of priorities of chemicals based on ecological risk assessment. We expect that these results can be useful information for establishing the WQS for the protection of aquatic ecosystem.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.97-109
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• 2020

The objective of this study was to assess spatial variation of the target water quality criteria and excess rate in Nakdong river basin after the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). For this, 41 total water quality monitoring stations were selected BOD and T-P data were collected from 2003 to 2019. The annual average water quality of BOD and T-P were calculated and compared with the target water quality for each stations by peroid. As a result of analyzing the BOD, Kumho A, Nakbon F, Namgang D, Miryang B, Wicheon B and Hoecheon A exceeded the target water quality criteria for two consecutive times. For T-P, Nakbon N, Naeseung B, Miryang A, Hwanggang A and Hoecheon A exceeded the target water quality criteria twice in a row. In the case of T-P, the target water quality excess rate was relatively low after the TMDLs implementation compared to before the TMDLs implementation. However, in the case of BOD, there was no difference in the target water quality excess rate before and after TMDLs. As a result, the overall annual average water quality shows a decreasing trend, but it is necessary to manage the water quality for the Nakdong river basin that exceed the target water quality.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.299-306
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• 2003

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of water quality in Jeju harbor and to estimate pollutant loadings discharged into Jeju Harbor. To know characteristics of water quality in Jeju harbor, and pollutant loadings of Sanzi river, we have investigated from August, 2000 to May, 2001. The results showed that the concentrations of COD, DIN and DIP were in the range of 1.00∼4.85 mg/L (mean 2.15 mg/L), 2.14∼74.0 $\mu\textrm{g}$-at/L(mean 12.20 $\mu\textrm{g}$-at/L) and 0.52∼4.00 $\mu\textrm{g}$-at/L(mean 1.18 $\mu\textrm{g}$-at/L), respectively. These values were under III class of seawater quality criteria. The ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus was lower than 16 except for Station 1 in Jeju harbor. Therefore, nitrogen was playing an important role in phytoplankton growth as limiting factor in Jeju harbor. The mean values of eutrophication index were exceeding 1, which was the eutrophication criteria. The results of estimating pollutant loadings at Sanzi river are 0.30 ton/day for COD, 300 kg/day for DIN and 18.0 kg/day for DIP, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.697-704
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• 2007

This study proposes an integrated technique of Genetic Algorishim (GA) and Geographic Information System (GIS) for designing the water quality monitoring networks. To develop solution scheme of the integrated system, fitness functions are defined by the linear combination of five criteria which stand for the operation objectives of water quality monitoring stations. The criteria include representativeness of a river system, compliance with water quality standards, supervision of water use, surveillance of pollution sources and examination of water quality changes. The fitness level is obtained through calculations of the fitness functions and input data from GIS. To find the most appropriate parameters for the problems, the sensitivity analysis is performed for four parameters such as number of generations, population sizes, probability of crossover, and probability of mutation. Using the parameters resulted from the sensitivity analysis, the developed system proposed 110 water quality monitoring stations in the Nakdong River. This study demonstrates that the integrated technique of GA and GIS can be utilized as a decision supporting tool in optimized design for a water quality monitoring network.