Learning Objectives
• Identify pollutants present in water and evaluate their impact on the water quality of surface and groundwater resources
• Analyze water samples for basic water quality parameters and describe their significance for public health or the environment
• Describe the importance of pH and the factors affecting it
• Define ionic strength and calculate it
• Define activity coefficients and describe their importance in quantifying chemical equilibrium relationships
• Define electrical conductivity and why it can serve as a surrogate for total dissolved solids
• Differentiate between different categories of solids in water or wastewater samples based on their measurement methods
• Describe the importance of temperature in evaluating the health of an aquatic system, the factors affecting it and water quality parameters affected by it.
• Describe the importance of dissolved oxygen levels in water with respect to public health and aquatic systems
• Describe the importance of turbidity in evaluating the health of an aquatic system and the factors affecting turbidity
• Describe sources of alkalinity in water sources, and their importance in determining water quality
• Describe problems associated with hardness, its impact on water quality and water uses.
• Describe the importance of color as a water quality parameter
• Define and describe different methods for estimating oxygen demand in water, their importance and applications
• Calculate ThOD for specific compounds or for a wastewater with known chemical composition
• Describe the COD test and its relation to ThOD
• Describe the BOD test and its relation to ThOD and COD and to the health of aquatic systems
• Describe the use and importance of TOC measurements for aquatic samples
• Describe the processes by which synthetic organic compounds enter natural aquatic systems
• Evaluate the presence of different elements in water and their importance
• Evaluate concentrations of major macronutrients in water and their importance
• Define the limiting nutrient in any aquatic system
• Evaluate the concentrations of micronutrients in water and their impact on the growth of organisms
• Evaluate the presence of toxic heavy metals in water and their impact on public health or environment
• List microbiological constituents in natural waters and their importance from a water quality perspective
• Differentiate between prokaryotes and eukaryotes
• Describe viruses and list some examples of diseases associated with viruses
• List common pathogenic bacteria and diseases associated with bacteria in water