Strategies to optimize monitoring schemes of recreational waters from Salta, Argentina: a multivariate approach

Abstract

Several recreational surface waters in Salta, Argentina, were selected to assess their quality. Seventy percent of the measurements exceeded at least one of the limits established by international legislation becoming unsuitable for their use. To interpret results of complex data, multivariate techniques were applied. Arenales River, due to the variability observed in the data, was divided in two: upstream and downstream representing low and high pollution sites, respectively; and Cluster Analysis supported that differentiation. Arenales River downstream and Campo Alegre Reservoir were the most different environments and Vaqueros and La Caldera Rivers were the most similar. Canonical Correlation Analysis allowed exploration of correlations between physicochemical and microbiological variables except in both parts of Arenales River, and Principal Component Analysis allowed finding relationships among the 9 measured variables in all aquatic environments. Variable’s loadings showed that Arenales River downstream was impacted by industrial and domestic activities, Arenales River upstream was affected by agricultural activities, Campo Alegre Reservoir was disturbed by anthropogenic and ecological effects, and La Caldera and Vaqueros Rivers were influenced by recreational activities. Discriminant Analysis allowed identification of subgroup of variables responsible for seasonal and spatial variations. Enterococcus, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, E. coli, pH, and fecal coliforms are sufficient to spatially describe the quality of the aquatic environments. Regarding seasonal variations, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, fecal coliforms, and pH can be used to describe water quality during dry season, while dissolved oxygen, conductivity, total coliforms, E. coli, and Enterococcus during wet season. Thus, the use of multivariate techniques allowed optimizing monitoring tasks and minimizing costs involved.

Tracking SARS-CoV-2 in rivers as a tool for epidemiological surveillance

“…The results from the monitoring from July to December 2020, allowed to verify that from the three rivers analyzed La Caldera River has the best water quality, with low and CN3Cov Cases sporadic fecal input, adequate for recreational activities, which was also described in previous work (Chávez Díaz et al, 2020;Gutiérrez Cacciabue et al, 2014). The Mojotoro and the Arenales Rivers receive the impact of the discharges of the two wastewater treatment plants of the city, WWTP-N and WWTP-S, respectively.…”

“…Cases sporadic fecal input, adequate for recreational activities, which was also described in previous work (Chávez Díaz et al, 2020;Gutiérrez Cacciabue et al, 2014). The Mojotoro and the Arenales Rivers receive the impact of the discharges of the two wastewater treatment plants of the city, WWTP-N and WWTP-S, respectively.…”

“…In this way, surface water can be impacted by wastewater. At the same time many of those aquatic environments are used as source water, for the irrigation of vegetables or for recreational purposes (Chávez-Díaz et al, 2019;Gutiérrez-Cacciabue et al, 2014;Poma et al, 2012). Previous studies about the microbiological quality of surface water in Salta, northwest of Argentina, demonstrated that fecal contamination was considerable in some rivers (Chavez-Díaz et al, 2020;Cruz et al, 2012;Gutierrez-Cacciabue et al, 2014), and multiple pathogens, including bacteria, enteric virus, and parasites, were found (Pisano et al, 2018;Poma et al, 2012;Prez et al, 2020), representing a risk for the population in contact with those waters (Poma et al, 2019).…”

Pool Water Overchlorination in Timis County, Romania: Case-Study

“… Microbiological pollution of recreational waters prompted communities' leaders to develop strategies to optimize monitoring schemes of recreational waters (Gutiérrez-Cacciabue et al, 2014), monitoring of microbiological quality of ambient waters (Poma et al, 2012), to create methods of microbial quality simulation of water resources including infectious risk (Schijven et al, 2015), to test microbial resistance of cutaneous germs from adult and children bathers in marine waters (Plano et al, 2011) or to investigate through specific tests Bacteroides from sewage-polluted waters (Fenga & McLellan, 2019).  Health effects of disinfection by-products exposure were investigated by researchers paying attention to associations: between testicular hormones at adolescence and attendance at chlorinated swimming pools during childhood , health effects and exposure to water disinfection by-products in a swimming pool (van Veldhoven et al, 2018), bladder cancer and water disinfection by-product exposures (Freeman et al, 2017) and between current and past concentration of THMs in water throughout France (Corso et al, 2018).…”

Modern approach to the assessment of the sanitary-bacteriological condition of Lake Baikal

“…In addition to the anthropogenic factors, climatic, hydrochemical and hydrological conditions also influence the sanitary-bacteriological state of water bodies, which should be considered during monitoring (Gutierrez-Cacciabue et al, 2014). The effective monitoring of surface waters requires processing a large amount of data using various multivariate statistical techniques.…”