field work on sediment analysis in the fresh water body in Kerala, India
The reference value of pH is 7 for the sediment and if the value more than 7 then the sediment behave like alkaline material. Also, if the value is less than the reference value then the sediment behave like acidic material..
I recommend looking up the World Health Organisation provisional guidelines which provides advice on what is a "reasonable" limit for chemicals in drinking water (link at bottom). There is still much debate over whether these are reasonable or not but they do provide a bench mark.
The limits are far from adopted by all countries (including, I understand, India). WHO do not provide a limit for pH because they state it is "Not of health concern at levels found in drinking-water". In terms of thinking about reasonable levels for pH rainwater is often at ~ pH 4.5 and in river/groundwater the pH will be higher because the alkalinity acts as a buffer increasing the pH. This means that a surface water less than 4.5 is very unusual because it is essentially rainwater that has been acidified and contains no (or very little) buffer.
WHO also don't provide a TOC value this is probably because TOC consists of multiple organic compounds which vary between locations. So you could have TOC of high concentration in one area but containing relatively innocuous chemicals and the same concentration at another site with dangerous chemicals and the single value would not discriminate between the two. The individual compounds do have guideline values.
I can't comment on EC but again I doubt there is a WHO limit because EC is simply a measure or conductivity and this is effected by the of ions dissolved in it. So you could have a high EC due to innocuous or dangerous chemicals and the measurement won't discriminate.
http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/44584/1/9789241548151_eng.pdf
You may refer to BIS (1991) or ICMR standards for Indian condition. I hope you are familiar with these standards.
Bureau of Indian Standard (1991) Indian Standard, Drinking Water Specification (first revision), IS 10500-1991,
- Badges
- Science topic