Key water quality parameters (BOD, DO, turbidity, pH, nutrients), the eutrophication mechanism, what water quality standards are actually based on, and water quality monitoring and sampling basics.
This module ties together the parameters that describe a water sample's condition — BOD5 and dissolved oxygen and the DO sag curve they drive, turbidity as a pathogen-shielding proxy, pH's effect on disinfection and coagulation, and the nitrogen and phosphorus loading that triggers eutrophication — with the standards those parameters are actually measured against: the enforceable/non-enforceable MCL vs. SMCL split for drinking water, and the technology-based vs. water-quality-based logic behind wastewater discharge limits and TMDLs.
By the end of this module you should be able to explain why a fish kill after an algae bloom is usually a secondary oxygen-depletion effect rather than direct toxicity, and how grab, time-proportional, and flow-proportional sampling each fit a different monitoring situation.