Turbidity, Effective Indicator of Water Quality Change

Turbidity is often closely correlated to surface water conditions and changes in turbidity are therefore indicators of changes in water quality. It is considered as the simplest and basic indicator of the amount of suspended sediment in the water. High turbidity makes water appear cloudy or muddy.

In a typical water or wastewater treatment application, turbidity is often evaluated alongside other water quality parameters. High turbidity is often corresponded with the following:

• High concentrations of bacteria, nutrients, pesticides, or metals. Sudden change in turbidity may indicate the presence of a pollution source (biological, organic or inorganic).
• Higher temperature and reduced dissolved oxygen due to increased heat absorption of the water.
• Reduced dissolved oxygen due to decreased light penetration into the water, resulting to hypoxic conditions in the aquatic environment.
• Total suspended solids (TSS), the concentration of particles suspended in the water column that are larger than two microns in size.
• Increased nutrient concentrations and chlorophyll caused by excess algae growth.

Turbidity is a crucial parameter for applications such as well water monitoring; monitoring of membranes for filtration or reverse osmosis, wastewater control in outlet of WWTP, cooling plant monitoring, etc.