Studies on pollution discharge scenario of effluents released from fine chemicals manufacturing industries along Dombivali industrial belt of Mumbai, India

The paper deals with monitoring of pollution arising due to fine chemicals manufacturing industries located along the Dombivali industrial belt of Mumbai, India. The study was carried for the period of one year from June, 2012 to May, 2013 to study the level of toxic heavy metals and the physico-chemical properties of waste water effluents discharged from the above industries. The concentration levels of heavy metals like Cu, Ni, Cr, Pb, Fe and Zn was found to be maximum of 45.94, 1.05, 7.50, 4.76, 145.87 and 21.96 ppm respectively in the effluents released during the months of February to April. The majority of physco-chemical parameters like alkalinity, salinity and chloride content were found to be maximum in the month of October having the concentration values of 1482, 4.91, 2710 ppm respectively, while the DO content in the effluents released in the same month was reported to be very much low having the value of 2.90 ppm. The effluents released during the month of June were reported to have high hardness, total solid (TS) content and COD values of 3713, 13638 and 6951 ppm respectively. The cyanide content (0.08 ppm), phosphate content (131.32 ppm) and BOD content (631 ppm) were found to be maximum in the months of December, February and May respectively. From the results it appears that as India moves towards stricter regulation of industrial effluents to control water pollution, greater efforts are required to reduce the risk to public health as toxic pollutants which are mainly colourless and odourless can be expected to be released into the ecosystems.