Preliminary assessment and classification of the water quality of the Tarcoles and Reventazan river basin Part I: Analysis of the contamination of four rivers of the metropolitan area

The general objective of this project was to monitor, evaluate and classify the quality of water according to physico chemical parameters of river Tarcoles and river Reventazon Basin for determining the initial contaminants discharge, as the initial reference level for the application of the new Environmental Regulatory Law of the MINAE. There were also evaluated other parameters to classify the quality of water according to physico chemical parameters using the Holland Classification Index and other quality classification criteria from MINAE. During the first six months of the year the different parameters mentioned in those two regulations were evaluated in the 4 control zones previously established. Measurements were made in field as well in the laboratory. In this first publication only 4 rivers belonging to the Metropolitan Area will be compared among them, considering the following parameters: dissolved oxygen, ammonium nitrogen, total suspended solids and oxygen saturation percentage.