What is the purpose of biomonitoring a plant's effluent?

The purpose of biomonitoring a plant's effluent is primarily to assess toxicity. This process involves using living organisms to evaluate the effects of the effluent on the health and behavior of aquatic life. By measuring how these organisms respond to the effluent, it becomes possible to determine whether the discharge contains harmful substances that could negatively impact the environment and aquatic ecosystems.

Biomonitoring is crucial for ensuring that wastewater treatment processes effectively remove pollutants before the effluent is released into natural water bodies. It helps regulatory agencies and plant operators ascertain compliance with environmental standards and guidelines by providing direct evidence of the effluent's impact on living organisms.

Testing for flow rate, pH levels, or temperature are important monitoring activities in their own right, as they relate to the operational efficiency and chemical characteristics of wastewater, but they do not directly measure the potential effects of the effluent on organisms in the receiving environment like toxicity testing does. Thus, toxicity testing is specifically targeted at understanding the biological impact of effluents, making it the primary focus of biomonitoring efforts.