Long Term Impact of Irrigation with Textile Waste Water and an Ecofriendly Approach for Heavy Metal Degradation

Abstract

The major environmental pollution encountered by the textile effluent is the presence of color, dissolved solids and refractory materials such as detergents, organic pollutants, heavy metal ions which might arise from dyes. Discharge of the textile effluent to the nearby water body alters the physical, chemical and biological nature of the water bodies, seep into the aquifer, decreases the oxygen level in water leading to death of the aquatic biota and biomagnification. The present study was developed to comprehend the pollution caused by the local textile mill to the environment and their remediation. The physicochemical analyses of discharged effluent, adjacent soil and the cultivated crop near the discharge point at Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, India were analyzed and found to be altered. The organic matter and total available nitrogen content in the soil was found to be reduced, the high concentration of heavy metal in the seeds of Pennisetum typhoides characterized with SEM–EDX indicates soil lost its fertility. The 16S rRNA sequence of the predominant bacterial isolates exhibiting maximum resistant level towards heavy metal was deposited in NCBI Genebank and designated as Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas putida. Further, the efficacy of the immobilized strains with Luffa aegyptiaca to accumulate/uptake heavy metals (Cr and Zn) under optimized conditions and their subsequent toxicity assessment in response to waste water irrigation were analyzed.