Emerging Water Quality Issues along Rio de la Sabana, Mexico

Abstract

The basin of Rio de la Sabana is the largest tributary of the Tres Palos coastal lagoon in Southwest Mexico, east of Acapulco. This lagoon and its upstream basin areas have become a high priority area for the preservation of coastal and marine environments. To obtain information about water quality as af-fected by urban expansion since 2002, fourteen physicochemical parameters (temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, dissolved oxygen, ammonium, ni-trate, nitrite, sulphate, phosphate), biochemical (biological and chemical oxy-gen demand, methylene blue active substances) and bacteriological parame-ters (total and fecal coliforms) were determined