Characteristics of Pollutant Loads and Water Quality in Kwangyang Bay, Korea

Characteristics of Pollutant Loads and Water Quality in Kwangyang Bay, Korea

The characteristics of pollutant loads from the various sources and seawater quality in Kwangyang Bay were evaluated. Total flow rate was estimated to be $10,868,066.8 m^3/day$ with a flow rate of R2l (the Seomjin River) as the highest one. Total COD, TN and TP loads of the input rivers and the ditches were about 27,591.8, 25,029.6 and 586.4 kg/day, respectively. Wastewater discharging loads was the greatest contributors to pollutant loads in the inner part of Kwangyang Bay. COD values in the inner part of the bay was over 3.0 mg/L, which exceeded the seawater quality criteria III of Korea. The average values of DIN and DIP were 8.62 ${\mu}gN/L\;and\;1.26\;{\mu}gP/L$, respectively. The limiting factor for algal growth was DIN. In he total discharging loads of the watershed from unit loading estimations, BOD, TN and TP were 9,132.3, 2,727.2 and 304.2 kg/day, respectively. In addition, municipal sewage by the population as pollution sources and the city of Kwangyang as administrative district had the highest loads. For a appropriate water quality recovery of Kwangyang Bay, it is suggested that it is essential to estimate reduction rate of total pollutant loads by water quality modeling.