Characterization of Sugar Industry Effluent and its Impact on Groundwater

I. Husain¹, J. Husain¹*,V. K. Vaidya²** and R. Vaidya³**

¹Public Health Engineenng Department (PHED) Laboratory, Bhilwara- 311 001, (India) ²Department of Environmental Studies MDS University Ajmer- 305 001, (India) ³Department of Chemistry, MLV Government College, Bhilwara- 311 001 (India)

Sugar industry of Shri Ganganagar was studied to characterize the wastewater and to find out its impact on the groundwater. The untreated wastewater of the dairy industry contains very high BOD and COD due to presence of organic matter. The BOD and COD value decreases up to 80% after treatment but stays above the standard limits provided by Bureau of Indian Standards (IS: 2490, 1981) and standards of Central Pollution Control Board. The quality of finally discharged wastewater improves after mixing with domestic wastewater of the city. The results of six groundwater samples collected from various sources of city indicate that there is no impact of sugar industry wastewater on the groundwater. A very good correlation coefficient (>0.8) was found between most pairs of parameters conforming the uniform quality of groundwater in the city area.

Sugar Industry; Effluent Treatment Plant; Groundwater pollution; UASB; BOD; COD