**Processes and the Resulting Water Quality in the Medium-Size Turawa Storage Reservoir after 60-Year Usage Processes and the Resulting Water Quality in the Medium-Size Turawa Storage Reservoir after 60-Year Usage**

Marek Ruman, Żaneta Polkowska and Bogdan Zygmunt Bogdan Zygmunt

Marek Ruman, Żaneta Polkowska and

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http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/66226

### **Abstract**

The characteristics of water in the Turawa reservoir, one of the important storage reservoirs in Poland, were thoroughly studied. The reservoir and also the rivers flowing into the reservoir were monitored in the period 2004–2006 with respect to the basic physico-chemical parameters determining the quality of water such as water temperature, specific conductance, pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and chemical oxygen demand (CODMn), water hardness, content of typical ions (sodium, potassium, sulphates, phosphates and chlorides), heavy metals, and so on. The observed seasonal and long-term changes of the parameters measured were discussed and the processes responsible for the changes suggested. The causes of the observed deterioration of the ecological status of the Turawa reservoir were given and the remedial operations proposed. The latter included improvement in the management of solid wastes and wastewater in the area, reducing the runoff of nutrients in the catchment, decrease in discharge of pollutants into the rivers flowing into the reservoir, removal of bottom sediments and also increasing the average water table and decreasing its fluctuations. The effect of the remedial operations will be further studied.

**Keywords:** Turawa reservoir, physico-chemical parameters, changes of water characteristics, remediation propositions, pollution sources

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
