Quality Assessment of Vegetable Oil Effluent Discharged into a Southeastern Nigeria River

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to assess the effluent quality in relation to national effluent standards and determine its pollution potential on the receiving Ossah River. Aspects of the physico-chemical characteristics were studied between January and June 2018 in 3 stations. Ten (10) parameters were evaluated using standard methods and compared with Nigerian effluent standard. The mean values recorded were – pH (5.37), Total suspended solids (13.70 mg/l), dissolved oxygen (5.05 mg/l), biochemical oxygen demand (2.65 mg/l), chemical oxygen demand (14.00 mg/l), nitrate (2.82 mg/l), phosphate (2.28 mg/l), sulphate (0.57 mg/l), chloride (69.3 mg/l) and oil and grease (0.1 mg/l). Most of the parameters evaluated were within acceptable limits and indicated that the effluent has low pollution potentials. The Biodegradability Index showed that effluent was not biodegradable and confirms the low pollution potential. However, pH and Total suspended solids deviated from the set acceptable limits with high pollution potentials. This study concluded that the quality of effluent discharged into Ossah River is good but need to be monitored periodically.