Rastreamento das fontes de contaminação fecal na praia da Jatiúca, Maceió - AL

Abstract

Tourism accounts for a large part of the income generation of Maceió, with beaches considered the most beautiful urban beaches in Brazil. Only this aspect justifies the care that should be taken to ensure good water quality and its scenic beauty, allowing the realization of recreational activities with health safety standards required by legislation. The bathing areas, in general, are the natural destination of stormwater, direct or indirect sewage discharges and waste disposed directly on the sand by humans and animals, which interfere markedly in water quality. The water quality of said beaches is monitored by the state environmental agency through analysis of fecal indicator organisms (Fecal Coliforms - FC). This work had the aim of assessing the degree of fecal contamination and its sources on a stretch of Jatiúca beach, an urban beach in the city of Maceió, through statistical evaluation of FC concentrations in samples collected over 05 monitoring stations in the period of 2006-2012, comparing the results with the rainfall and the tidal states and amplitudes of the study period. The historical results of monitoring indicated that the major source of contamination is near the station 081 (Jatiúca Beach). A study of samples collected around this point showed that the source of fecal indicator microorganisms was located up north. The results obtained in the area of Jatiúca beach have shown a positive correlation between the concentration of FC and rainfall, FC and tide height, and FC and tidal amplitude. A storm drain located north of station 081 has been identified as the main source of fecal contamination in Jatiúca Beach. It is also likely that the groundwater in the area is contaminated by sewage and that the contaminated water is reaching the bath zone during spring tides. It is recommended that the environmental agencies responsible for beach water quality monitoring also conduct in-depth analyzes of the results, in order to determine possible sources of contamination.