A comparative analysis of water collected from Koel River & water released from Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP)

Abstract

The expected increase in the use of coal as an energy source for the production of steel has resulted in several investigations into environmental cycling of coal unleashes pollutants. Among these is the release of various liquid effluents that are associated with coal throughout the carbonization, cleaning and combustion processes. The industries, like coal, by-product coke-plants, coal washeries and thermal power plants unleash their liquid effluents that are required urgent attention for the treatment, before they are discharged into the contemporary water streams. There’s also the release of ash pond decant into the local water bodies from the coal-based industries. Such unleash pond decant tends to deposit ash all along its path thereby inflicting fugitive dust nuisance when it dries up. Additionally when such water mixes with a water body, it will increase the turbidity of the water body thereby decreasing the primary productivity. This is often harmful to the fisheries and other aquatic biota within the water body. The objective of this project work is to investigate the environmental impacts of waste water discharged from coal based industries and need to recognize the consequences. The Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) releases the polluted water to Koel River which is the main river in Rourkela & most of the people are dependent on it for different purpose like drinking, washing, bathing etc.The present study indicated that most bacteria which were isolated from the Koel River are Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus megaterium&Bacillus pumilis.