Assessment Of Water Quality Status Of Penang Coastal Water
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Date
2018-07
Authors
Suliman, Siti Noor Syafika
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
In this study, the assessment of water quality parameters (temperature, pH,
salinity, conductivity, total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity, dissolved oxygen, total
suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand
(BOD), ammonia, orthophosphate, nitrate, and nitrite) were carried out. Organic
pollution index (OPI) was determined to assess the organic pollution status around
the study area. Water samples were collected at the coastal water of Penang Second
Bridge (Site A) and Penang National Park (Site B) during spring and neap tides,
alternately for six months (December 2015 - May 2016). During hot weather of El
Nino in April 2016, the seawater temperature reached 34.37 °C at Site A. In this
study, ammonia concentration was found to be significantly higher at Site A
especially at the estuary of Sg Keluang (4.0 mg/L) measured in April 2016. TSS was
also high at both Site A (surface: 20 – 493 mg/L, bottom: 60 – 708 mg/L) and Site B
(surface: 27 – 220 mg/L, bottom: 60 – 1131 mg/L), recorded in April and January
2016, respectively. Mapping of the surface and bottom water using Surfer 12
software indicated that ammonia and TSS were concentrated at the estuaries at Site A
and coastal area towards the open sea at Site B (SB11). Based on the independent ttest
calculations, ammonia, orthophosphate, and nitrite were significantly higher
(p<0.05) at the surface water of Site A, while nitrite was significantly higher
(p<0.05) at the bottom layer of Site B. Most of the nutrients recorded during spring
tide were higher compared with neap tide may be due to higher residual current
present. The assessment of organic pollution based on OPI showed that most of the
stations at Site A (especially at estuaries of Sg Keluang, Sg Jawi and seawater nearby
the Pulau Burung landfill), recorded OPI values greater than 4 indicating that the
coastal water were being polluted with organic substances.
Description
Keywords
Assessment of water quality status , of Penang coastal water