| Title |
The Characteristics of Ammonia Nitrogen Detected in Raw and Treated Water in Korea |
| Authors |
윤제용(Je Yong Yoon),변석종(Seok Jong Byun),김해심(Hae Shim Kim),조순행(Soon Haing Cho) |
| Abstract |
Ammonia is sometimes considered as a indicator parameter for organic pollution in fresh water. The presence of ammonia in fresh water could be harmful to aqueous ecosystem, depending upon its concentration and pH. In addition, the reaction of ammonia with chlorine may produce organic chloramines causing taste and odor problems in treated water. We investigated the characteristics of ammonia concentration (NH₃-N) in raw water and treated water in Korea. The water quality data during 5 years (1994-1998) were collected from the Ministry of Environment. The number of ammonia data in raw water and treated water was 7,091 from 592 raw water monitoring sites, and 34,134 from 600 water treatment plants, respectively. Ammonia was detected in 37.6% out of 7,091 raw water monitoring data. 88.4 out of the ammonia detected samples were below 0.1 ㎎/L. The frequency of ammonia detection in both raw water and treated water has been gradually decreased for last five years. The number of data exceeding 0.5 ㎎/L was 283(3.6%) and many of these samples occurred in winter. It is attributed to the lack of nitrification of ammonia due to low temperature. |