Análisis comparativo de diferentes índices para evaluar la calidad de agua del río Salado perteneciente a la cuenca del río Puyango

Abstract

Abstract:The present work seeks to evaluate the quality of the water of the Salado River and thus validate the existence of contamination due to mining activity. For this, a monitoring network was designed with historical information from 5 different points, allowing samples and data to be collected from the area and thus analyzed in the laboratory. When comparing with the TULSMA, Annex 1 of Book VI for different uses and applying indices to evaluate the quality of the water. The river has a quality of 40.5, proving to be poor according to the CCME-WQI, for the HPI it is excellent with 76.48 and regular with 2.53 for the NPI, with total and fecal coliforms being the main contaminants. However, there is also high contamination by metals, being corroborated by the correlation that exists between the indices and variables such as precipitation, temperature, and flow. In addition to performing an analysis with the sediments, the proposed hypothesis was validated. Therefore, a remediation plan was proposed in the short, medium, and long term, which allows mitigating the environmental impact caused in the Salado River.