Association Patterns among Physical, Chemical and Microbiological Indicators of Springs in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

This study aimed to verify the linear associations between physical, chemical and microbiological variables of spring water. The research was developed from two seasons water sample collections evaluated physical–chemical such as temperature, pH, turbidity, electrical conductivity, total alkalinity, hardness, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, true apparent colors, phosphorus, fluoride iron, variables—total coliforms Escherichia coli. variables’ conductivity have a strong positive correlation among them (r > 0.50), which is similar what occurs with color, nitrite turbidity coliforms. These correlations occur function interaction that has soil compounds found, thus altering quality. springs do not masonry protection, they only plant protection. Moreover, this exposed accessible animals in these areas. In addition, result surface sub-surface flow effect must be considered.