Water quality in mūša watershed and analysis of pollution sources

The researches of water quality are made by regional Departments of Environment Protection of Ministry of Environment. In watershed of the Mūša were analysed samples of water taken at upwards and downwards the river from cities, agricultural spheres of influence, influx of the river and at the border of Republic of Lithuania. According to chemical-physical parameters of the Mūša watershed, in period of1997 - 2004 year, water in the most of watershed rivers was polluted. Water in the Kulpė( downwards Šiauliai) and the Obelė (downwards Radviliškis) was heavily polluted with nitric and phosphatic compounds; The Kulpė (at influx),the Mūša (downwards the Kulpė) – nitric and phosphatic;the Lėvuo(at influx) – only phosphatic. Only in some rivers degression of pollution was detected. There is a large difference between concentrations of pollution in the samples taken upwards and downwards the city. Agricultural landed property pollutes water with nitric, phosphatic compounds and organic substances. According to theoretical methods of calculation, the largest amount of anthropogenic load to soil caused by human goes to districts of Šiauliai, Radviliškis and Pasvalys. The anthropogenic load to soil caused by animals is observed in districts of Pasvalys, Pakruojis and Radviliškis. The largest anthropogenic load to soil caused by human and animals can be found in Pasvalys and Pakruojis districts, the least – in Šiauliai district. A lot of pollutants of this type can be found in domestic and industrial effluents. The largest amount of people without plumbing lives in Šiauliai and Biržai districts. 66% of people in Šiauliai district and 61% in Pakruojis district are not connected to sewerage system. The part of not connected population has got the local equipments from which the effluent is being brought to utilization areas. But the largest contingent spreads the effluent into the environment (field, etc.). The most water polluting cities are Šiauliai, Biržai and Pasvalys because their waterworks are old-fashioned and water flowing from it to the Kulpė, Juodupė and Lėvuo rivers is not totally cleaned up and affects all the watershed of the Mūša river. Therefore it is very important to equip the new waterworks or to reconstruct the old ones in the largest cities of the project area and decrease pollution from agricultural landed property