A study on water quality and physio- chemical parameters in Aras river of East Azerbaijan province

Abstract

The aim of current study is water quality of Aras River based on environmental parameters at four stations (From Julfa to 25km after Nourdos border) during four seasons from 2015 to 2016. All samples were carried out standard methods using titration and spectrophotometer instruments. Result showed that range of water and weather temperature, DO, BOD5, COD, EC, Turbidity, TA, CO2, pH, DIP, NH4/N, NO2/N, NO3/N and IRWQI were observed 200-24.00, 3.00-28.00 C, 8.90-15.01, 1.77-13.41, 2.00-86.00 mg/l, 1.00-1.34 ms/cm, 2.4-638.0 NTU, 116-247 mg/ CaCO3 l, 0.20-2.20 mg/l, 8.06-8.79, 0.026-0.195, 0.330-0.575, 0.005-0.026, 3.640-6.474 mg/l, and 31.10-48.02, respectively. Mean of whole parameters (TA, NO2 - and NO3 - ) were significant between seasons and (p<0.05) but whole parameters were not significant between stations (p>0.05). As a conclusion, result showed that 61 percent of the total data indicates the quality of water was relatively bad, although about 31 percent of the total data (based on the quality of IRWQI) indicates the quality of water was "moderate level", but the mean of the data showed that the water quality at various stations was "very bad". This condition starting serious changes in water characteristics affected by environmental degradation, exposure to domestic and agricultural pollution. This study also showed that the PCA test is a suitable and effective method for determining the effective water quality parameters and also dominance source of various contamination.