MICROBIAL AND OTHER RELATED CHANGES IN A NIGER DELTA RIVER SEDIMENT RECEIVING INDUSTRIAL EFFLUENTS.

The microbial and other related changes of Okpoka- Woji River serving as a sink for effluents of industries located in its vicinity within the TransAmadi Industrial area were investigated. Sediment samples were collected from six sampling stations located along the channel for the assessment of total heterotrophic and hydrocarbon-utilizing bacteria, total heterotrophic and hydrocarbon-utilizing fungi, pH, electrical conductivity, redox potential, total organic carbon, oil and grease and total petroleum hydrocarbon. The mean values for the total heterotrophic and hydrocarbon- utilizing bacteria ranged from 3.4 x 10⁵ to 7.84 x 10⁵cfu/g and 1.58 x 10⁵ to 4.57 x 10⁵cfu/g respectively. The mean values of the total heterotrophic and hydrocarbon – utilizing fungal counts ranged from 1.98 x 10⁴ to 8.83 x 10⁴cfu/g and 5.08 x 10³ to 9.93 x 10³cfu/g respectively. The pH mean values ranged from 4.87 to 6.17 while the redox potential mean values ranged from 57.70 to 125.7mV. The electrical conductivity and total organic carbon mean values ranged from 138.02 to 3113µS/cm and 3.58 to 6.32% respectively. The mean values for the oil and grease and total petroleum hydrocarbon ranged from 3791.72 to 21,537.30mg/Kg and 3037.60 to 17,461.63mg/Kg respectively. The bacterial genera isolated from the samples included Nocardia, Pseudomonas. Klebsiella, Lactobacillus, Flavobacterium, Escherichia, Bacillus, Micrococcus, Proteus, Citrobacter and Staphylococcus. The fungal isolates included Rhizopus, Aspergillus, Fusarium, Mucor and Candida. The study showed that the river is being polluted by the activities of the industries operating in the area.