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Numerical modeling to define remediation actions for


water quality in streams
ab

ab

A.N. Menendez , E.A. Lecerta , N.D. Badano


a

ab

& P.E. Garca

ab

Hydraulics Laboratory, National Institute for Water (INA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

LaMM, Department of Engineering, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina


Published online: 18 Aug 2015.

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To cite this article: A.N. Menendez, E.A. Lecerta, N.D. Badano & P.E. Garca (2015): Numerical modeling to
define remediation actions for water quality in streams, Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research, DOI:
10.1080/23249676.2015.1072850
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Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research, 2015


http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23249676.2015.1072850

Numerical modeling to define remediation actions for water quality in streams


A.N. Menendeza,b , E.A. Lecertaa,b , N.D. Badanoa,b and P.E. Garcaa,b
a Hydraulics

Laboratory, National Institute for Water (INA), Buenos Aires, Argentina; b LaMM, Department of Engineering, University
of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

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(Received 20 March 2015; accepted 8 July 2015 )


Numerical modeling can play a key role in establishing an adequate strategy to achieve specic goals regarding water
quality in streams. This is illustrated through an application to a big water basin with both rural and urbanized zones, and
with degraded water quality. One-dimensional unsteady hydrodynamic modeling, linked to a hydrological model, is used. It
is shown that the identication of the main pollutant sources, the estimation of their associated loads, and the assessment of
non-point contributions, constitute a fundamental step in the model buildup. Only the relevant mechanisms are included in
the water quality model. A challenging statistical criterion is proposed in order to calibrate the model. This model constituted
the backbone for the formulation of the integral strategy adopted to remediate the water quality of the river, including the
reduction in biochemical oxygen demand loads from big industries and water treatment plants, and the location and design
parameters of aeration stations.
Keywords: water quality modeling; stream pollution; remediation actions; non-point sources

Introduction
The quantity and quality of data needed to interpret,
through statistical analysis, the relationship between water
quality in streams and pollutant sources (Chang 2008)
is seldom available. Moreover, projections of changes in
water quality due to interventions on pollutant sources
cannot be accounted for with this methodology. Hence,
numerical modeling constitutes often the fundamental tool
in order to undertake water quality assessment.
One-dimensional (1D) water quality modeling of river
stretches using quasi-steady-state approaches are presently
a relatively common task, either to produce diagnoses
(Palmieri & Carvalho 2006; Park & Lee 2002) or to
test management strategies (Kannel et al. 2007; Paliwal
et al. 2007). Application of unsteady approaches, linked to
hydrological modeling, is scarcer (Krysanova et al. 1998;
Tong & Chen 2002; Easton et al. 2008). Unsteady simulation is necessary when reaching sea inlets; if well mixed,
1D modeling (Fortes Lopes et al. 2008) or two-dimensional
modeling (Menndez et al. 2013) is sucient; in the opposite case, fully three-dimensional modeling should be used
(Zheng et al. 2004).
Calibration of the water quality model is usually undertaken manually, that is, through a trial-and-error procedure. However, dierent strategies for automatic calibration have been proposed (Whitehead et al. 1981; Sincock
et al. 2003; Yuceer et al. 2007; Mannina & Viviani 2010).

*Corresponding author. Email: angel.menendez@speedy.com.ar


2015 IAHR and WCCE

Identiability analysis for selecting the most relevant


parameters in the model is a crucial issue (Reichert & Vanrolleghem 2001; Marsili-Libelli & Giusti 2008; Freni et al.
2011), since insensitivity to model parameters leads to a
high level of output uncertainty. In this respect, inclusion
of only the relevant mechanisms in the water quality model
is recommended (Vanrolleghem et al. 2001).
A distinction between point and non-point contributions to the instream total load is not an easy task
(Azzellino et al. 2006). The unsteadiness of non-point
sources poses a further challenge (Lai et al. 2011; Li et al.
2011).
Beyond this established knowledge, challenges for
practical applications of numerical modeling remain, especially to circumvent deciencies in available information
in order to produce the necessary data to undertake a reliable diagnosis, and test the eects of proposed works and
management policies. Some of the main practical issues
are: (i) possibility of analysis at the basin scale and on
a time-continuous basis; (ii) identication and representation of a multiplicity of pollutant sources; (iii) estimation of
loads from the pollutant sources; (iv) calibration strategies
and criteria limited by the available data; and (v) design
of an adequate strategy to achieve specic goals regarding water quality. They are addressed in the application
presented in this paper, involving the Matanza-Riachuelo
River Basin (Argentina), in which numerical modeling

A.N. Menendez et al.

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was used to dene the type and dimensions of the actions


needed to achieve a specic level of water quality, taking
into account the whole set of pollutant sources throughout
the basin. 1D unsteady modeling, linked to a hydrological
model, was applied. Assessment of non-point contributions
was a central issue. Only the relevant mechanisms were
included in the water quality model.
The Matanza-Riachuelo River, about 64 km long, discharges toward the Plata River (actually, an estuary),
located at approximately 35 S on the eastern coast of
South America (Figure 1). Its basin, which includes a
signicant part of the city of Buenos Aires, has an area

Figure 1. Matanza-Riachuelo Basin.

of about 2240 km2 . The population living in the basin


amounts to around 5 million inhabitants. In its lower
reach, the hydrologic river discharge (i.e. the one generated only by rain) ranges between 0.1 m3 /s (exceeded
90% of the time) and 12 m3 /s (10%). On top of that there
are signicant anthropic discharges (with water imported
mostly from the Plata River and the rest from groundwater). Additionally, the tidal wave penetrating from the Plata
River introduces a large oscillation in the discharge, with
amplitudes of the order of 40 m3 /s close to the MatanzaRiachuelo River mouth, which attenuates relatively fast
toward the upstream direction.

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Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research


A signicant amount of population of the basin
live in homes not connected to the sewage system, for
which expansion plans have been formulated, but not yet
implemented.
The basin has been the site of industrial activities of
dierent types for many decades. The industries used to be
located in the urbanized lower basin, but in the last decades
big factories have been installed in the mostly rural middle
and upper basins. The total number of industries generating
liquid euents is around 4000.
The high pollutant load contribution from both treated
and untreated euents to the Matanza-Riachuelo River has
led to the breakdown of its water quality, with the associated degradation of the neighborhoods along its banks. In
2006, the Supreme Court of Justice, taking into consideration a claim from a group of 150 inhabitants of the basin,
summoned the national and regional authorities to set up a
remediation plan for water, air, and social conditions. The
numerical modeling study presented in this paper has constituted the backbone for the formulation of the integral
strategy adopted to remediate the water quality of the river.

Methodology
Strategy of the study
1D hydrodynamic and water quality numerical models
of the Matanza-Riachuelo River and its main tributaries
were built. The hydrodynamic model is driven by runo,
anthropic discharges, and the tidal wave. In turn, the
hydrodynamic model and the loads associated to the pollutant sources drive the water quality model. Figure 2
schematizes these relationships. The implementation and
calibration of these models are described below.
The numerical models are used to: (i) perform a diagnosis for the present water quality situation, from which
the conceptual design of remediation actions are dened,
leading to the formulation of a remediation plan and (ii)

Figure 2. Flow chart of the relations among models.

test and eventually adjust the proposed remediation plan,


in order to achieve specic quantitative goals.
Hydrodynamic model
The use of 1D hydrodynamic modeling (based on Saint
Venant equations) to simulate the longitudinal distribution of river water levels and currents is well established
(Cunge et al. 1980). Two conditions justify the chosen 1D
approach for the present problem: (i) the high ratio between
river length and transversal (width, depth) dimensions and
(ii) the objective of the remediation plan, which aims at
producing satisfactory water quality levels at a basin scale.
Proprietary software Mike 11, from DHI, was used (DHI
2012a).
In addition to the Matanza-Riachuelo River, the hydrodynamic model includes its six main tributary creeks
(Rodriguez, Cauelas, Chacn, Morales, Aguirre, and
Ortega), as indicated in Figure 3. A total of 84 cross sections were used to represent the geometry of the water
courses. Additional cross sections were built through interpolation, reaching a total of 345 (see Table 1), leading to a
spatial step of around 450 m. The spatial step is then about
four times smaller than the geometrical scale of resolution;
additionally, it is much smaller than the extension of the
ood waves (of the order of the basin longitudinal length)
and the wavelength of the tidal wave (much higher than
the basin longitudinal length), so it was considered a priori a sound choice. Some sensitivity tests were performed
initially for higher spatial steps, showing dierences below
the uncertainty range of the recorded data.
Three roughness zones were distinguished: (I) the
lower 10 km reach of the Matanza-Riachuelo River, the
main siltation zone; (II) the following 16 km stretch,
where tidal eects are still signicant; and (III) the rest
of the water courses. The corresponding Manning roughness coecient values were adjusted during calibration
(see below).
The contributions from runo were provided by a
hydrologic model (see below). A fraction of the contribution from each sub-basin was used as the upstream
boundary condition for the corresponding creek (the fraction was the relative area of the drainage basin to this point,
highlighted in Figure 3); the rest was distributed as a lateral
discharge toward the creek and/or river stretch. The estimation procedure for anthropic contributions from domestic
and industrial sources was made together with the one for
pollutant loads, described below. The tide was imposed
as the downstream boundary condition at the MatanzaRiachuelo mouth, using hourly records provided by the
Naval Hydrographic Service of Argentina (SHN).
A spatially lumped, time-continuous hydrologic model
was built, based on the conceptual model NAM (DHI
2012a), incorporated within Mike 11. The basin was subdivided into 12 sub-basins, as shown in Figure 3. Their
geometric parameters were determined from a Digital

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A.N. Menendez et al.

Figure 3. Schematization of Matanza Riachuelo Basin; gross blue lines: Matanza-Riachuelo River (including its Drainage Channel, DC).
Red lines: tributaries represented in hydrodynamic model; green lines: urban creeks; striped zones: upper area of the creeks sub-basins
considered as a point contribution at the head of the creek (red dot).

Table 1. Number of cross sections for the 1D hydrodynamic model.


Number of cross sections
Water course Length (km) Original Interpolated Total
MatanzaRiachuelo
Rodriguez
Cauelas
Chacn
Morales
Aguirre
Ortega

72.1

54

113

167

9.9
13.7
11.5
26.2
13.9
6.7

3
4
3
14
3
3

18
26
22
44
26
12

21
30
25
58
29
15

Elevation Model built from the topographic information


(contour lines) provided by the National Geographic Institute of Argentina (IGN). Daily time series for precipitation
were available from the National Meteorological Service
of Argentina (SMN).
In order to feed the hydrodynamic model, the water
yield from each sub-basin (as provided by the hydrologic
model) was distributed as an input along the corresponding

water course (river stretch or creek), except for the fraction


corresponding to the upper area of the creeks sub-basins,
which was considered as a point contribution at the head
of the creek, as schematized in Figure 3.
From the ratio of the spatial step and the maximum
celerity of the gravity waves (about 10 m/s, based on a
maximum water depth of about 10 m at the river mouth),
a time step of the order of 50 s arises as convenient for
accuracy reasons. It was xed at 30 s.
The calibration of the hydrodynamic model was based
on the comparison of predicted and observed discharge
time series. On the one hand, observations made during
the 1960s at Riccheri station (see Figure 1), where the
contribution of anthropic discharges and tidal eects were
insignicant at that time (the drainage channel, DC, was
not yet built, see Figure 3), were used to calibrate the model
response to runo, as illustrated in Figure 4(a). On the
other hand, observations for present-day conditions at stations close to the Matanza-Riachuelo mouth were utilized
to calibrate the model response to tide adjusting Manning coecient values for the dierent roughness zones
to (I) 0.04, (II) 0.025, and (III) 0.015 and to the lower

Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research


(a)

(b)

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Figure 4. Calibration of hydrodynamic model for: (a) response to runo; (b) response to tide and lower basin base ow. Red dots:
observations; blue line: model.

basin base ow adjusting some anthropic discharges as


illustrated in Figure 4(b).
Water quality model
The 1D water quality model includes advection, diffusion/dispersion, transformation, and source/sink terms
(Jorgensen 1994). It was handled through software Mike
11 + ECOLAB, from DHI (2012b). However, for the
inclusion of the eects of aeration stations (see below), a
special application was developed (MaRiOD) which runs
in series with the former one.
The aim of the remediation plan is to increase the dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration of the water column
(see below), particularly aected by high BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) input. Hence, the balance equations
for DO and BOD were formulated, including the Nitrogen
cycle through its two main species: Ammonia (NH4) and
Nitrate (NO3). The corresponding transformation model
was the following (parameters symbols denote their concentrations; in the case of NH4 and NO3 they indicate only
Nitrogen content):
DO2
dDBO
= Kb
(T20) DBO,
2
dt
KO + DO2 c
dNH4
DO2
(T20) NH4,
= Kn
dt
KN2 + DO2 c
dNO3
DO2
= Kn
(T20) NH4
dt
KN2 + DO2 c
Kd

(ODa OD)2
KD2 + (ODa OD)2

u(ODa OD)c(T20) NO3,


dDOD
DO2
= Ka c(T20) DOD + Kb
(T20) DBO
dt
KO2 + DO2 c
+ Kn

DO2
SOD
,
c(T20) rN NH4 +
2
+ DO
R

KN2

where DOD = DOs DO is the DO decit, with DOs


being the saturation value for DO; K,b , K n , K d , and K a ,
the biodegradation, nitrication, denitrication and reaeration coecients, respectively; rN the rate of oxygen uptake
per unit of ammonia nitrogen oxidation; KO, KN and KD
the half-saturation constants for Oxygen, Ammonia and
Nitrate; u( . . . ) the step function ( = 1 if argument is
positive; = 0 if argument is negative); ODa a threshold
value for OD below which denitrication takes place; C
is the Arrhenius factor; T is the water temperature; SOD
is the Sediment Oxygen Demand; and R is the hydraulic
radius. Note that rst-order reactions were considered for
the decay processes, but corrected with MichaelisMententype factors (though quadratic) to account for the reaction
rate reduction due to low DO values.
Standard values, within the technical literaturereported ranges (USEPA 1987; Garcia-Ruiz et al. 1998;
Stright 1999; Henze et al. 2008), were adopted for
the model parameters, without further renement: rN =
4.57 gO2/gN-NH4 (stoichiometric ratio), KO = 1.4 mg/l,
KN = 2.0 mg/l, KD = 0.5 mg/l, and C = 1.01. The
threshold value was xed at ODa = 2 mg/l. The water temperature was represented through a time series of monthly
averaged values taken at the inlet of Central Puerto Power
Plant, located close to the river mouth (and provided by
Endesa, the Electricity Company), as no signicant temperature variations along the water courses were detected
from measurements.
For the biodegradationcoecient the reported range
was considered (USEPA 1985), but a decreasing spatial
distribution in the downstream direction was assumed due
to the following reasons: (a) when water depth increases,
a relatively lower volume comes in contact with the bottom biological community, which is the prime oxidation
agent and (b) the downstream water contains a relatively higher portion of oxidation refractory components
(USEPA 1997). Figure 5 shows the adopted distribution along the Matanza-Riachuelo River for the present
situation, after calibration; the one assumed for the project

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Figure 5. Spatial distributions of: biodegradation coecient K b for present situation (blue line) and project scenario (green line);
reference SOD for project scenario (yellow line); and depth (red line).

scenario, higher (conservative hypothesis) and modulated


according to the water depth, is also shown.
The nitrication coecient was xed at 0.04 day1 ,
the same value as for the Plata River (Menndez et al.
2013). The denitrication coecient was adjusted to 1.2
day1 during calibration, but the eective denitrication
rate is much lower as it quickly reduces to reported
values (USEPA 1985, 1988) when DO increases due to the
MichaelisMenten-type factor.
Re-aeration formulae were applied for K a : Thyssen
et al. (1983) for water depths below 0.2 m (creeks);
OConnors and Dubins (1958) for water depths above 0.5
m (ordinary rivers); and an interpolation between the two
formulae for intermediate water depths (in order to provide
a smooth transition between them).
A linear relationship was assumed between SOD and
DO (representative of a diusion process, but taking into
account that DO concentration is very low within the
sediment):
SOD = SODref

DO
,
DOref

where SODref is a reference value for SOD when DO


equals DOref , which was xed at 8 g/l. Dierent longitudinal SODref distributions were assigned to the present and
project scenarios, both of them decreasing in the upstream
direction due to decreasing urbanization density (hence,
lower loads) and backwater eects (hence, lower siltation).
For the former scenario, a value of around 6 g/m2 /day for
the lower reach was estimated from in situ measurements
performed by the water supply company (AySA 2012);
however, SOD plays only a marginal role in the present
situation, due to the persistent low DO values. Figure 4(b)
shows the assumed distribution for the project scenario,
with a value of 1 g/m2 /day at the lower reach, corresponding to estuarine mud (USEPA 1985); this assumes
that mud stabilization, regarding BOD emission, has been
achieved, as discussed below.

Loads
Establishing the pollutant loads (which includes the associated water discharges) is a key issue for water quality
modeling. This requires a thorough analysis of pollutant sources and the development of proper methodologies in order to calculate the loads based on the available data, generally scarce and discontinuous. Pollutant
loads from many dierent sources were identied: (i) discharges from waste water treatment plants (which include
both domestic and properly pre-treated industrial euents); (ii) non-collected domestic discharges (from zones
not connected to the sewage system); (iii) discharges
from industries not connected to the sewage system; (iv)
storm water runo; (vi) emission from bottom sediments;
and (vii) discharges from urban creeks, in the populated
areas of the lower basin, collecting a series of domestic and industrial sources not captured by the previous
analyses.
There exist seven waste water plants in the basin, which
time average loads were known or estimated. They were
considered as point sources. Their location and input point
to the water quality model are indicated in Figure 6(a)
(some decay was estimated along the non-represented
stretches from plant location to the input point). The usual
water discharge and BOD concentration for the major one
(Sudoeste Plant) are about 2 m3 /s and 30 mg/l, respectively, leading to a BOD load of above 5 ton/day. There is
also a discharge from a small treatment plant for percolating water from a sanitary landll.
Non-collected domestic discharges were considered as
diuse sources. Their time average values were estimated,
for each county, through a calculation procedure based
on population census data which distinguishes among
dierent sanitary facilities (sewer, sceptic tank, latrine,
cesspool), hence allowing a partition of loads. Losses due
to inltration and decay were considered in the calculation.
The resulting loads per county were subdivided according
to county subdivisions based on population density, and

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(a)

(b)

Figure 6. Location of loads; (a) sources (P) and corresponding input points (long arrows) for waste water treatment plants; input points
(short arrows) for diuse domestic discharges (the codes are associated to the county names); (b) sources (points) for big industries
associated to BOD; zones (painted) and input points (arrows) for diuse industrial discharges associated to BOD.

assigned to points along the water courses, as shown in


Figure 6(a).
For the discharges from industries not connected to the
sewage system, a mixed approach was undertaken, namely

big industries were considered as point sources (for which


time-averaged loads were known or estimated), and the rest
of them were treated as diuse sources. For example, in
the case of BOD about 50 facilities (Figure 6(b)) explained

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A.N. Menendez et al.

Figure 7. Longitudinal distribution of parameters for the present situation. Black crosses: observations; red line: 10% exceedance; blue
line: 50% exceedance; and green line: 90% exceedance (the opposite for DO).

about 75% of the total load; hence, they were treated


as point sources. On the other hand, the time-averaged
contributions from the diuse sources were determined
based on emission factors for the following ve industry types: (i) metallurgy, electroplating, melting, automotive spare parts; (ii) beverages, food and derivatives; (iii)
textile, footwear, leather, fur; (iv) chemistry, plastic, pharmacy, rubber, paper; and (v) others. These diuse sources
were grouped into zones, for which eective loads (including losses) were determined and plugged into the water
quality model, as indicated in Figure 6(b).
Storm water runo was considered as a diuse source.
Pollutant concentrations were assigned to the time series of
the water discharge arising from the hydrologic model (see

above), according to a land-use zoning for three dierent


categories, from the upper to the lower Matanza-Riachuelo
basin: rural (1 mg/l for BOD), mildly urbanized (5 mg/l),
and strongly urbanized (11 mg/l). Note that this is the only
contribution for which time-continuous instead of time
averaged inputs were established.
The emission from bottom sediments is considered as a
longitudinal distribution for SOD, according to the above
explained model.
Discharges from urban creeks (Figure 3) were estimated through available (scarce) measurements. They
include Santa Catalina, del Rey and the ones from the
Cildaez creek and its drainage channel; the latter brings
pollutants from the neighboring Maldonado Basin.

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Calibration of water quality model


The time step used for the water quality model was the
same as for the hydrodynamic model (30 s), small enough
to adequately represent the transport and transformation
time scales.
In order to calibrate the water quality model, a comparison of the predicted pollutant concentrations with
observations must be performed.
Observations of pollutant concentrations for the
Matanza-Riachuelo River correspond to a series of instantaneous samplings for a set of stations, taken with a
seasonal period (about three months). They are associated with dierent instantaneous hydrologic stages (even
for the same sampling campaign). Additionally, relatively
signicant inter-annual variations in pollutant loads have
taken place throughout the basin. Taking also into account
that only time-averaged values are used for the most signicant pollutant loads of the water quality model, it is
concluded that it is not possible to undertake a timecontinuous comparison. Then, a statistical approach was
adopted.
Now, the scarcity of concentration data for each station (and variability of the loads) does not allow building
reliable statistics for each one of them. Hence, an overall
statistical criterion was employed, according to the following methodology: (a) the water quality model was run for
the time window 1 January 201031 December 2011 (two
years), as representative of the present basin status; (b)
histograms for the calculated concentrations of the water
quality parameters were produced for each spatial node,
from which the spatial envelopes for dierent percentile
exceedances were obtained; in particular, for the 10% and
90% exceedances, which determine a longitudinal fringe of
maximum likelihood for each parameter; (c) all the concentration observations for those two years were plotted on
the envelopes graph; (d) adjustments in loads from diuse
sources (specially for NH4 and NO3), within their uncertainty intervals, were performed in order to achieve the best
possible match between the total relative quantity of observations lying below the 90% exceedances envelopes and
within the maximum likely fringes, with their corresponding theoretical percentages (10% and 80%, respectively),
for all the water quality parameters.
Figure 7 shows the envelopes (including the 50%
exceedance) and the maximum likely fringes for DO,
BOD, NH4, and NO3 after calibration, together with the
corresponding observations (the axis is the longitudinal
distance measured in the upstream direction from the river
mouth). Note that most of the measured concentration values tend to lie within the maximum likely fringe, indicating
that the model correctly represents the general trends of
the measured longitudinal distributions. From the quantitative point of view, Table 2 indicates the percentage of
observations lying below the 90% envelope, and within the
maximum likely fringe. The agreement with the theoretical

Table 2. Percentage of observations lying within model


predictions percentile ranges.
Parameter

Below 90% (10%)


(%)

Within 10%/90%
(80%) (%)

13
15
13
23

83
73
66
60

DO
BOD
NH4
NO3

values (10% and 80%, respectively) is considered quite satisfactory for OD, good for BOD and NH4, and fair for
NO3. However, due to the relatively low NO3 values and
the fact that this discrepancy has no implications in the
DO balance, no further attempt was made to improve the
agreement.

Present situation
Diagnosis
The calibrated water quality model was used in order to
formulate a diagnosis on the present water quality status of
the Matanza-Riachuelo River.
Figure 7 shows that nearly anoxic conditions are frequently reached all along the river, and especially in the
lower reach. The increment of DO close to the river mouth
is due to mixing with the Plata River waters under tidal
action. If anoxia is conventionally established as corresponding to DO < 2 mg/l, it is observed that the river can
be considered as anoxic much more than 50% of the time
for the major part of its extension. Anoxia is associated
to persistent bad smell in the river neighborhood, which
stands according to inquiries as one of the main reasons
for social unwillingness to settle in that area, thus leaving the site for low-quality settlements and economically
marginal activities.
Figure 7 also indicates that the organic matter content
of the water column is extremely high all along the river,
which is the main cause of oxygen depletion. DBO concentrations well above the saturation value for DO make it
impossible for the river to neutralize pollution.
Figure 8(a) shows the BOD, NH4, and NO3 daily loads
to the river, discriminated by source (annual median values
were considered for storm water runo). It is observed that
the major contributions for the former two parameters are
the non-collected domestic sources. Big industries stand
as the second largest contribution to BOD. Note that the
contributions from the water treatment plants are relatively
high for the three parameters; in the case of BOD, this
occurs in spite of producing a big drop in the concentration of the pre-treated waters, as the total water discharge
from the plants is very signicant relative to the natural
river discharge.
In Figure 8(b), the longitudinal distribution of timeaveraged contributions per unit length from the

10

A.N. Menendez et al.

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(a)

(b)

domestic discharges (through expansion of the sewage system, which is also a necessity from the social point of
view); (ii) increase in the BOD removal eciency of the
existing and future (in view of the sewage system expansion) water treatment plants; and (iii) reduction in BOD
loads from industries (through proper treatment). Take into
account that the rst two actions are linked, since reduction
in non-collected domestic discharges implies an increase in
the discharge from the treatment plants.
Now, in order to properly design the remediation
actions, specic goals had to be set for the concentration
of the water quality parameters. In view of the complexity of the problem due to the large basin dimensions and
the variety and ubiquity of the pollutant sources and taking into consideration the primary social requirement for
reduction of the bad smell, it was established as the objective for the rst-stage remediation plan to achieve the water
use standard dened as Passive Recreation. This means
recreation activities pointing to esthetic enjoyment, such
as landscape appreciation, tracking, biking, etc. (National
Health & Medical Research Council 1990; WHO 2003).
Water quality standards for this water use (and other ve
uses) were dened by a technical commission coordinated
by the Secretary of the Environment (Menndez 2012). In
particular, the limiting values established for the modeled
parameters were the following: DO > 2 mg/l, BOD < 15
mg/l both of them to be fullled 90% of the time no
restriction for NH4 and NO3.

Project scenario
Remediation master plan

Figure 8. Present situation: (a) loads per parameter and source;


(b) longitudinal distribution of contributions to DO.

dierent mechanisms to the DO balance, for the lower river


reach, are displayed. It is observed that the two main components are re-aeration (as a source) and biodegradation
(as a sink), tending to compensate each other. The contribution of nitrication (sink) is rather small, except close
to the river outlet where tidal action takes place. SOD is
practically insignicant.

Remediation framework
From the preceding results, it turns out that signicant
reductions in pollutant loads to the river should be achieved
in order to reach an observable improvement in water
quality. The following conceptual actions on the major pollutant sources were identied: (i) control of non-collected

The remediation master plan (RMP) formulated by the


Matanza-Riachuelo Basin Authority (ACuMaR), in order
to achieve the objective of Passive Recreation for the
Matanza-Riachuelo River, has three main components.
Two of them deal with pollutant sources, and one with the
river assimilation capacity.
The rst main component of the RMP refers to the
sewage system, which collects mainly domestic discharges
(though it also receives industrial euents previously
treated to reduce toxic loads to acceptable levels). The
plan includes the following works (Figure 9), undertaken
by the Water Company for the Buenos Aires Metropolitan
Region (AySA): (i) expansion of the sewage system (providing nearly total sewer coverage for the projected 2050
population); (ii) expansion of two existing water treatment
plants (Sudoeste and El Jagel); (iii) construction of
two new water plants (Laferrere and Fiorito); (iv) construction of a Left-Bank Conduit along the left bank of the
lower river reach, in order to intercept dry-time loads, and
transport them to the Central Sewage System (CSS); (v)
construction of an Industrial Conduit along the right bank
of the lower reach, in order to capture treated loads from
a tannery industrial pole, and transport them to the CSS.

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Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research


Additional works are included in the Master Plan for the
sewage system (Coastal Conduit, outfalls, etc.), but they
point to improve the water quality in the coastal zone of
the Plata River and, in particular, around the water intakes,
so they are not relevant for the present study; this issue was
described in Menendez et al. (2013).
The second component of the RMP deals with the big
industries not connected to the (expanded) CSS. Reconversion Industrial Plans (RIPs) must be formulated for
dierent industries, in order to improve their environmental
performance. In particular, the RIPs should lead to lowering pollutant loads in the euents, through reduction in
liquid residues and improvement of treatment processes.
The third component of the RMP is the construction of
aeration stations of the SEPA (Sidestream Elevated Pool
Aeration) type (Butts et al. 2000) in the lower reach, in
order to increment the assimilation capacity of the river,
pointing to achieve the goal related to DO ( > 2 mg/l for
90% of the time).

Hypotheses
A sediment ux modeling study was undertaken, based
on the approach by Di Toro (2001), in order to establish
the system response once implemented the remediation
plan. Details were reported in Menndez (2012). The
main result was that stabilization of muds, that is, decay
to negligible values of SOD, would be achieved after
about ve years. This time scale is of the same order
of the one necessary to build up the works involved in
the RMP, so it was concluded that the present-day sediment pollution level will be reduced during the buildup

11

phase, until reaching a level compatible with the new


situation, categorized as estuarine mud, as explained
above.
In order to increase the margin of safety of the proposed solutions, the following hypotheses were made for
the project scenario: (a) 10% of the population will still
remain without connection to the sewer system; (b) the
pollutant loads from the diuse industrial sources located
in areas not covered by the sewage system expansion will
not change (i.e. no improvements in water treatment are
considered); and (c) the contribution from the urban creeks
will remain as in the present situation.
Though the potential establishment of additional big
industries (or industrial poles) was not explicitly considered for the project scenario, the information provided by
the model for this component the total maximum admitted industrial pollutant loads for dierent river stretches,
to be shared by all the industries settled in each contributing area could be used as a restriction criterion for future
industrial settlements.
Model input to RMP
The water quality model was a key tool for the design
of the RMP works, and it was responsible for indicating the necessity to implement aeration stations in order
to achieve the established goal. Specically, the model
provided the following inputs to the RMP, as necessary
actions: (i) reduction in BOD of the euents from the main
water treatment plants (Sudoeste, El Jagel, Laferrere, and
Fiorito) from the present standard of 30 mg/l down to 15
mg/l; (ii) reduction in BOD of the euents from the big
industries not connected to the sewer system , from the
present standard of 50 mg/l down to 30 mg/l; (iii) installation of six SEPA stations, at specic locations and with
specic water treatment capacities (discharges).
Results and discussion

Figure 9. Scheme of waste water disposal project.

Figure 10 shows the envelopes (including the 50%


exceedance) and the maximum likely fringes for DO,
BOD, NH4, and NO3 corresponding to the project scenario, according to the model. In relation to the present
situation (Figure 7) it is observed that: (i) there is a strong
drop in BOD, due to the cut in loads; in particular, the
objective of maintaining BOD below 15 mg/l during 90%
of the time is clearly fullled; (ii) there is a signicant elevation of DO, especially in the upper reach, due to the BOD
decrease; in particular, the goal of maintaining DO above 2
mg/l during 90% of the time is fullled, though marginally
in the lower reach and with the help of the SEPA stations;
(iii) there is a small decrease in NH4; in the upper reach
this is due to the reduction in domestic load and in the
lower reach it must be due to the increase in DO, which
stimulates nitrication, even though there is a net increase
in NH4 load (see below); (iv) there is a decrease in NO3 in

12

A.N. Menendez et al.


Figure 11(b) presents the comparison between the BOD
and NH4 total loads to the river for the project scenario
and the present situation. It is observed that: (i) there is a
decrease in total BOD load which amounts to about 40%;
(ii) the NH4 and NO3 loads increase, in more than 50% for
the rst parameter, and in more than double for the second
one.
The longitudinal distribution of time-averaged contributions per unit length from the dierent mechanisms
to the DO balance for the lower river reach, corresponding
to the project scenario, is displayed in Figure 11(c). Compared with the present situation (Figure 8(b)), it is observed
that: (i) the two main components tend to decrease, namely
reaeration due to DO increase and biodegradation
due to BOD decrease; (ii) nitrication increases due to

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the upper reach, due to the decrease in domestic load, and


an increase in NO3 in the lower reach, due to the increase
in NO3 load (see below), the stimulation of nitrication,
and the ceasing of denitrication.
Figure 11(a) shows the BOD and NH4 loads to the
river, discriminated by source, for the project scenario.
Comparing with the ones corresponding to the present
situation (Figure 8(a)), it is observed that: (i) there are
signicant increases in loads from the water treatment
plants, which are now the dominant sources for the
three parameters; (ii) the reduction in loads from noncollected domestic sources is also signicant for the
three parameters; (iii) urban creeks and diuse industrial
sources lie now second and third in the rank for both
BOD and NH4.

Figure 10. Longitudinal distribution of parameters for the project scenario. Red line: 10% exceedance; blue line: 50% exceedance; and
green line: 90% exceedance (the opposite for DO).

Journal of Applied Water Engineering and Research


(a)

13

(b)

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(c)

Figure 11. Project scenario: (a) loads per parameter and source; (b) total loads per parameter; (c) longitudinal distribution of
contributions to DO.

DO increase reaching a signicant contribution close


to the river mouth; and (iii) SOD remains practically
insignicant.
Conclusions
Numerical modeling presently plays a key role in establishing a diagnosis on the water quality of a water body, and on
the denition of the adequate strategy in order to improve
its water quality through remediation actions. In particular,
it can be successfully applied to the basin scale and on a
time-continuous basis for a long time-interval.
The implementation and calibration of the model is in
itself a learning process about the absolute and relative relevance of the multiplicity of pollutant sources present in a
basin on the water quality of the water courses. Additionally, the model is the main tool in order to test and adjust
specic remediation actions in order to achieve specic
remediation goals.

The identication of the main pollutant sources and


the estimation of their associated loads constitute a fundamental step in the model buildup. For the particular case
of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin, the following pollutant
sources were identied: waste water treatment plants, noncollected domestic discharges, industries not connected to
the sewage system, storm water runo, and bottom sediments. Except for storm water runo, only time-averaged
loads were amenable to estimation.
The representation of both domestic and industrial
sources into two groups point and diuse contributions
was shown to be an ecient way of modeling. Loads from
point sources arose from measured data, while those from
diuse sources were estimated through emission factors,
partition of loads, and inclusion of losses. The subdivision of non-connected industrial sources was performed,
for each parameter, by considering as point sources the set
of largest industries representing about 75% of the total
load.

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14

A.N. Menendez et al.

SOD was included as a model process. The stabilization


of bottom muds was studied through a separate sediment
ux model, not described in the present paper.
The calibration of the water quality model must be
performed through adjustment of both model parameters (especially decay coecients) and loads from diuse
sources. The use of a statistical criterion in order to compare with measured values is considered as a sound and
challenging procedure.
After calibration, a relatively low uncertainty remains
regarding the resulting total loads per river stretch, though
a higher uncertainty remains in their subdivision per
source.
It was shown that the model allowed the denition of
a strategy in order to achieve the proposed remediation
goal (Passive Recreation). In particular, it established the
necessary quantitative reduction in BOD loads from big
industries and water treatment plants, and indicated the
necessity of implementing aeration stations, providing the
values for their design parameters.

Disclosure statement
No potential conict of interest was reported by the
authors.

Notes on contributors
Angel N. Menndez, Ph.D. of The University of Iowa
(USA) 1983, is a research engineer and consultant on
hydraulic, hydrologic, and water-related environmental
problems. He works on ow, sediment, pollutant, and heat
dynamics. He is Head of the Computational Hydraulics
Program at INA (National Institute for Water), and Professor at the University of Buenos Aires. He is an expert
in development and application of numerical models. He
has to his credit numerous papers in international journals, and has been head of a variety of research and
consulting projects nanced by governmental, private, and
international funds.
Emilio A. Lecerta, is a Civil Engineer from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires
(FI-UBA, 2010). He is Teaching Assistant of Numerical Modeling and Hydrology at FI-UBA. His areas of
expertise include numerical simulation of hydrodynamics, water quality, environmental impact and hydrologic
problems.
Nicols D. Badano, is a Civil Engineer from the Faculty
of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires (2010),
where he is currently pursuing Ph.D. studies, nanced by
INA (National Institute for Water, Argentina). His areas of
expertise include numerical simulation of hydrodynamic,
water quality and hydrologic problems, and development
of computational codes.

Pablo E. Garca, has graduated in Civil Engineering from


the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Buenos
Aires (FI-UBA, 2006), where he is currently pursuing
Ph.D. studies. Since 2007 he is Teaching Assistant in
Numerical Methods for Engineers at FI-UBA. His areas
of expertise include numerical simulation of hydrodynamics, water quality, environmental impact and hydrologic
problems.

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