Stable isotope on the evaluation of water quality in the presence of WWTPs in rivers
2016
Lee, Jaewoong | Park, Taejin | Kim, Min-seob | Kim, Jongmin | Lee, Seunghyun | Lee, Su Kyuong | Lee, Young-Sun | Lee, Won-seok | Yu, Soonju | Rhew, Doughee
We investigated the distribution of nitrogen compounds in Han River as well as two tributaries of Tancheon and Jungrangcheon. Particularly, we observed the significant releases of NH₄ ⁺-N from effluent of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in two tributaries that has resulted in the increases of ammonium nitrogen (NH₄ ⁺-N) in Han River as well as in Tancheon and Jungrangcheon. Due to the increases of NH₄ ⁺-N in two tributaries, the larger distribution of δ¹⁵N-NH₄ ⁺ was observed than those of δ¹⁵N-NO₃ ⁻ in downstream. We calculated the contribution rate of ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen from effluent to downstream according to the results of stable isotope. The contribution rates of δ¹⁵N-NH₄ ⁺ from effluent to downstream were significant that ranged between 53 and 100 % in Tancheon and between 27 and 100 % in Jungrangcheon. While the contribution of δ¹⁵N-NO₃ ⁻ was not significant in Tancheon, it was occasionally observed in Jungrangcheon. These results demonstrated that WWTPs are the major sources of NH₄ ⁺-N in two tributaries, which caused the distinguishable stable isotope of δ¹⁵N-NH₄ ⁺. Therefore, the stable isotope of δ¹⁵N-NH₄ ⁺ could be a useful parameter or tracer for the evaluation of NH₄-N released from WWTPs in rivers.
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