Morphology, Geology and Water Quality Assessment of Former Tin Mining Catchment

Table 3

Maximum allowable limit for raw water and portable water.

Serial number	Parameter	Raw untreated water (after Ministry of Health, Malaysia)	Portable water
			Ministry of Health, Malaysia (2009)	US Environmental Protection Agency (2008) and World Health organization (2009)
1	Physical characteristics
	Turbidity	1000 NTU	5 NTU	5 NTU
	Colour	300 Hazen	15 Hazen	5 Hazen
	pH	5.5–9.0	6.5–9.0	6.8–9.2
2	Inorganic
	Dissolved solids	1500 mg/L	100 mg/L	500 mg/L
	Total solids	—	—	1500 mg/L
	Chlorides	250 ppm	250 ppm	250 ppm
	Nitrate	10 ppm	10 ppm	45 ppm
	Iron Fe	1.0 ppm	0.3 ppm	0.3 ppm
	Fluoride	1.5 ppm	0.9 ppm	1.5 ppm
	Ammonia N	0.5 ppm	0.5 ppm	—
	Total nitrogen NO3	1.0 ppm	—	—
	Hardness	500	500	—
	Sulphate	400 ppm	400 ppm	400 ppm
3	Elements/compounds
	Mercury	0.001 ppm	0.001 ppm	0.002 ppm
	Cadmium	0.005 ppm	0.005 ppm	0.01 ppm
	Selenium	0.01 ppm	0.01 ppm	0.01 ppm
	Arsenic	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm
	Cyanide	0.1 ppm	0.1 ppm	0.05 ppm
	Lead	0.1 ppm	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm
	Chromium	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm
	Silver	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm	0.05 ppm
	Copper	1.0 ppm	1.0 ppm	1.0 ppm
	Magnesium	150 ppm	150 ppm	—
	Manganese	0.2 ppm	0.1 ppm	0.05 ppm
	Zinc	5.0 ppm	5.0 ppm	5.0 ppm
	Sodium	200 ppm	200 ppm	200 ppm
	Aluminium	—	0.2 ppm	0.2 ppm
	Oil and grease	0.3 ppm	0.3 ppm	0.3 ppm
	Phenol	0.002 ppm	0.002 ppm	—

Recommended concentration limits for these constituents are mainly to provide acceptable aesthetic and taste characteristic.