Water pollution risk simulation and prediction in the main canal of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project

The middle route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (MRP) will divert water to Beijing Tuancheng Lake from Taocha in the Danjiangkou reservoir located in the Hubei province of China. The MRP is composed of a long canal and complex hydraulic structures and will transfer water in open channel areas to provide drinking water for Beijing, Shijiazhuang and other cities under extremely strict water quality requirements. A large number of vehicular accidents, occurred on the many highway bridges across the main canal would cause significant water pollution in the main canal. To ensure that water quality is maintained during the diversion process, the effects of pollutants on water quality due to sudden pollution accidents were simulated and analyzed in this paper. The MIKE11 HD module was used to calculate the hydraulic characteristics of the 42-km Xishi-to-Beijuma River channel of the MRP. Six types of hydraulic structures, including inverted siphons, gates, highway bridges, culverts and tunnels, were included in this model. Based on the hydrodynamic model, the MIKE11 AD module, which is one-dimensional advection dispersion model, was built for TP, NH3-N, CODMn, and F. The validated results showed that the computed values agreed well with the measured values. In accordance with transportation data across the Dianbei Highway Bridge, the effects of traffic accidents on the bridge on water quality were analyzed. Based on simulated scenarios with three discharge rates (ranged from 12 m(3)/s to 17 m(3)/s, 40 m(3)/s, and 60 m(3)/s) and three pollution loading concentration levels (5 t, 10 t and 20 t) when trucks spill their contents (i.e., phosphate fertilizer, cyanide, oil and chromium solution) into the channel, emergency measures were proposed. Reasonable solutions to ensure the water quality with regard to the various types of pollutants were proposed, including treating polluted water, maintaining materials, and personnel reserves. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.