Environmental assessment related to the sewage water discharge of a tannery company into Aburra river

Abstract

Tannery industries use organic and inorganic chemicals to perform their operations by generating pollutant discharges that are discharged to surface sources. This study evaluated the environmental impact associated with the dumping of a tannery company located in the Municipality of Copacabana, Antioquia, characterizing the area of ​​direct and indirect influence affected by the company's discharges in to river Aburrá. The Conesa method was applied (based on the cause-effect matrix method involving the Leopold matrix and the Batelle-Columbus Institute method). According to the results, it was possible to identify as a significant impact as a significant impact the use and physicochemical alteration of water resources, especially in the tanning process related to soaking, hair removal, dewatering, purging, pickling, tanning, retanning and dyeing.The parameters of pH, Conductivity, BOD (fast and slow), flow rate and temperature using the QUAL2K model of the EPA were simulated in order to verify the impact of the discharge of the company's spills on the water source.In this study, it was determined that the rapid BOD discharged increases the concentration of 167 mg O₂/L up to 185 mg O₂ /L in the studied section, moving significantly away from the quality objective of the Aburra river of 50 mg O₂/L and exceeding the limits permissible in Resolution 631 of 2015 in the parameters COD and BOD₅, by 203% and 150%. The parameters of Conductivity and temperature did not show affectation in the source.