Method for assessment and analysis of anthropogenic load on rivers from point pollution sources

Samara Federal Research Center RAS, Institute of Ecology of the Volga Basin RAS, Samara, Russia Wastewater discharge into rivers has a negative impact on the quality of water resources. The existing methods for assessing the anthropogenic load from the discharge of wastewater into rivers do not allow one to compare and rank according to the degree of load rivers that differ in the size of the catchment area and are located in different natural zones. The author has developed a method for assessing and analyzing the anthropogenic load on rivers from the discharge of pollutants, which takes into account the water content of rivers and basin features of the formation of the quality of water resources. The proposed method makes it possible to determine the integral and differentiated loads for priority pollutants. It allows you to decompose the load into separate components (nitrogen, phosphoric, sulfate, chloride, etc.), to standardize the load taking into account the quality of river waters and to assess the priority of specific pollutants. This method has been tested on 12 rivers in Russia located in different natural and climatic conditions and having a wide range of water runoff values from 10 to 600 km3 / year. The calculation results showed that p. The Volga is experiencing the greatest anthropogenic load from the discharge of pollutants in wastewater. Therefore, first of all for the river. On the Volga, it is necessary to develop a basin program for the gradual reduction of anthropogenic load and mechanisms for its implementation.