Evaluación de la calidad del agua de la microcuenca del río Piñas mediante los índices ICA y BMWP

Abstract

This study was conducted on the Piñas River micro basin, which belongs to El Oro province, with the purpose of knowing its quality based on ICA and BMWP/Col index, including the variant ASPT; In order to establish a relationship between two climatic seasons winter and summer (including the transitory period). Four sampling stations were raised along the river bed, in places from lower to higher volume of waterwaste discharges, located from the riverhead to its mouth. It was found, by means of the method “Aforo por flotadores” (calculation of the flow), that this year has been atypical, causing the transition stage to obtain the high flows, therefore, this stage was selected as high flow and the summer stage as low flow; The winter stage is mentioned only in analysis which importance is significant. For a better understanding of the relations between the parameters physicochemical there was made the ACP for both flow rates. Stations three and four, indicated the lowest values of the ICA, with the criteria "polluted waters" and "strongly contaminated waters" because of the high amount of polluting charge that passes through these points. The obtained results of BMWP/Col and ASPT index for the two flow rates, located the micro basin in the categories "critical" and "very critical". The dominant macroinvertebrates families were Oligochaetes and chironomids, indicating poor water quality.