The petroleum refining processing counts on two main phases and a wide number of different operations to generate fuels and other useful products. The first phase is to eliminate salts and then, to distil a lot of compounds or fractions. The second phase includes three kinds of processes: to combine, to separate and to structure. Even if the petroleum refineries apply currently water treatments to eliminate the pollutant substances before the river dumping, in some countries, like Mexico, there are cities or towns near the petroleum refining installations and it is very important to develop monitoring programs to avoid human health problems related to industrial pollution. The Tula River is an important closed basin that flows to The Endho Dam and to several aqueducts. The aim of this paper was to establish pollutant emission factors from the refining industry to estimate the influence of the Miguel Hidalgo Refinery in the water quality of this river. Two sampling campaigns were carried out in the dry and the wet seasons, considering the industrial effluent after the treatment and in ten sampling stations in The Tula River. The levels of the main environmental parameters at this aquatic ecosystem, like pH, temperature, suspended matter, flow, grease and oil, total nitrogen, settled solids, suspended solids, Biochemical Oxygen Demand, fecal coliform bacteria, cyanide, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, copper, chromium, nickel, lead, zinc, phosphorus, contemplated by the Mexican legislation, were compared to the levels found in the effluent. According to the sampling results, the main kinds of wastewater treatments were analyzed and a numerical efficiency analysis was developed for the best option selection to be applied to diminish the pollution in the water column of The Tula River in the Mexican Hidalgo State, to reach a sustainable management.
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