Industrial effluent quality, pollution monitoring and environmental management

Abstract

Royal Commission Environmental Control Department (RC-ECD) at Yanbu industrial city in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has established a well-defined monitoring program to control the pollution from industrial effluents. The quality of effluent from each facility is monitored round the clock. Different strategic measures have been taken by the RC-ECD to implement the zero discharge policy of RC. Industries are required to pre-treat the effluent to conform pretreatment standards before discharging to central biological treatment plant. Industries are not allowed to discharge any treated or untreated effluent in open channels. After treatment, reclaimed water must have to comply with direct discharge standards before discharge to the sea. Data of industrial wastewater collected from five major industries and central industrial wastewater treatment plant (IWTP) is summarized in this report. During 5-year period, 3,705 samples were collected and analyzed for 43,436 parameters. There were 1,377 violations from pretreatment standards from all the industries. Overall violation percentage was 3.17%. Maximum violations were recorded from one of the petrochemical plants. The results show no significant pollution due to heavy metals. Almost all heavy metals were within RC pretreatment standards. High COD and TOC indicates that major pollution was due to hydrocarbons. Typical compounds identified by GC-MS were branched alkanes, branched alkenes, aliphatic ketones, substituted thiophenes, substituted phenols, aromatics and aromatic alcohols. Quality of treated water was also in compliance with RC direct discharge standards. In order to achieve the zero discharge goal, further studies and measures are in progress.

Heavy Metal Pollution in Avicennia marina Mangrove Systems on the Red Sea Coast of Saudi Arabia

“…In Yanbu, several violations of industrial discharges have been reported (e.g. Paimpillil et al, 2002 andAhmad et al, 2008). Ahmad et al (2008) mentioned that many types of pollutants are discharged into coastal areas in excessive concentrations such as hydrocarbon compounds and thus present another form of pollution for Yanbu mangroves.…”

“…Paimpillil et al, 2002 andAhmad et al, 2008). Ahmad et al (2008) mentioned that many types of pollutants are discharged into coastal areas in excessive concentrations such as hydrocarbon compounds and thus present another form of pollution for Yanbu mangroves. In addition other organic and thermal pollutants were reported to significantly affect mangrove systems in other parts of the Red Sea coast (e.g.…”

Pretreatment of Wastewater Streams from Petroleum/Petrochemical Industries Using Coagulation

“…This forces the Saudi government to issue strict legislation concerning the quality of industrial wastewater effluents and the industries are not allowed to discharge any treated or untreated effluent in open channels and even after treatment, the reclaimed water must have to comply with direct discharge standards before discharge to the sea [2]. So the entire industrial sectors send their wastewater effluents to a local wastewater treatment plant to treat their waste effluents to an increasingly high standard.…”

Assessment of Solid Waste Management in Residential Townships in Lusaka Zambia

“…Poor management of waste not only leads to declining environmental health conditions but contributes to disease outbreaks as well. Studies have indicated that solid waste management is a problem in many developing countries especially in high-density areas [1,2]. Effluent and other types of solid waste are dumped either in rivers or in drainages resulting into water and air pollu-…”