Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

1 Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 Associated Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

3 Ph. D. student, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

Abstract

Naqadeh plain located in the southwestern part of Urmia Lake has suitable water resources. In recent years, agricultural development and increasing industrial units, in addition to inadequate disposal of urban, industrial and agricultural wastewater to the Gedar River, increase the risk of groundwater contamination. In order to monitor the groundwater resources of this plain, 33 water samples from exploitation wells were collected during July 2016. Hydrochemical parameters and the concentration of the major, minor and heavy metals elements of collected samples were analyzed. In order to identify the origin of heavy metals and the related geogenic and anthropogenic pollution sources of them, hydrochemical diagrams, statistical analysis, spatial distribution maps and geological interpretations were used. The results indicate the concentration of some parameters including EC, and heavy metals include, Fe, Mn, and Al are higher than the international standard limits. HPI was used to understand the drinking quality of groundwater resources in regard to the concentrations of six heavy metals. Classification results show a good quality for 70% and inadequate quality for 30% of the samples. The total HPI index of Naqadeh plain is 23.24, which is lower than its critical values(100). Also, the highest HPI of sampling points with values of 161,220 and 871 threaten human health. High concentrations of heavy metals can be related to the dissolution of geological formations, mining of iron ore, and the activity of industrial units and the condensation of elements in groundwater due to high evaporation in areas with a low depth of groundwater.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References
Al-Garni, S., 2005- Biosorption of lead by gram-ve capsulated and non-capsulated bacteria. Water SA 1(3): 345-349.
Ameh, E. G. and Akpah, F. A., 2011- Heavy metal pollution indexing and multivariate statistical evaluation of hydrogeochemistry of River PovPov in Itakpe Iron- ore mining area, Kogi State, Nigeria. Advancees in Applied Science Research 2(1): 33-46.
ASTM, 2002- Annual book of ASTM standards. American Society for Testing and Materials, Section 11, Water and environmental technology vol.11.01. 1020 p.
Balakrishnan, A. and Ramu, A., 2016- Evaluation of Heavy Metal Pollution Index (HPI) of Ground Water in and around the Coastal Area of Gulf of Mannar Biosphere and Palk Strait. Journal of Advanced Chemical Sciences 2(3): 331–333.
Bouwer, H., 1978- Groundwater Hydrology: McGraw-Hill Book.
Chabukdhara, M., Gupta, S. K., Kotecha, Y. and Nema, A. K., 2017- Groundwater quality in Ghaziabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India: Multivariate and health risk assessment. Chemosphere 179: 167-178.
Davis, N. S. and Dewiest, R. J. M., 1966- Hydrogeology. John Wiley and Sons Inc, U.S.A. 463 pp.
Duffus, J. H, 2002- Heavy metals-a meaningless term?. Pure Appl Chem 74(5): 793–807.
Elumalai, V., Brindha, K. and Lakshmanan, E., 2017- Human exposure risk assessment due to heavy metals in groundwater by pollution index and multivariate statistical methods: a case study from Soth frica. Water 9(4): 234.
Emberger, L., 1930- La vegetation de la region mediterraneenne. Essai d’une classification des groupments vegetaux. Rev. Gen. Bot 42: 641-662,705-721.
Freeze, R. A. and Cherry, J. A., 1979- Groundwater: Prentice Hall Inc. New Jersey.
Hauke, J. and Kossowski, T., 2011- Comparison of values of Pearson’s and Spearman’s correlation coefficient on the same sets of data. Quaestiones Geographicae, Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Poznan 30(2): 87–93.
He, J. and Charlet, L., 2013- A review of arsenic presence in China drinking water. Journal of Hydrology 49(2): 79-88.
Helsel, D. R. and Hirsch, R. M., 2002- Statistical methods in water resources, Techniques of Water-Resources Investigations of the United States Geological Survey. Retrieved from http://water.usgs.gov/pubs/twi/twi4a3/.
Hem, J. D., 1985- Study and Interpretation of Chemical Characteristics of Natural Water. Third Edition. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2254. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
Homonick, S. C., McDonald, A. M., Hel, K. V., Dochartaigh, B. E. and Ngwenya, B. T., 2010- Mangeneses concentration in Scottish groundwater. Sci. Total Environment 408(12): 2467-2473.
Horton, R. K., 1965- An index number system for rating water quality. Journal-Water Pollution Control Federation 37: 300-305.
Hounslow, A. W., 1995- Water quality data: analysis and interpretation: Lewis publishers.
Mac Berthouex, P. and Linfield, C. B., 2002- Statics for environmental engineers, 2nd ed. USA: Lewis publishers; CRC Press.
Majhi, A. and Biswal, S. K., 2016- Application of HPI (Heavy Metal Pollution Index) and Correlation Coefficient For The ssessment of ground water quality near Ash Ponds of thermal power plants. International Journal of Science Engineering and Advance Technology 4: 8.
Nadiri, A. A., Sadeghi Aghdam, F., Khatibi, R. and Asghari Moghaddam, A., 2018- The problem of identifying arsenic anomalies in the basin of Sahand dam through risk-based 'soft modelling'. Science of the Total Environment 613–614: 693–706.
Panigrahy, B. P., Singh, P. K., Tiwari, A. K., Kumar, B. and Kumar, A., 2015- Assessment of heavy metal pollution index for groundwater around Jharia Coalfield region. India. Biodivers Environ Sci 6(3): 33-39.
Pearson, K., 1920- Notes on the History of Correlation Author. Biometrika 13(1): 25-45.
Prasad, B. and Bose, J. M., 2001- Evaluation of heavy metal pollution index for surface and spring water near lime stone mining area of lower Hamialayas. Environmental Geology 4: 183-188.
Prasad, B. and Jaiprakas, K. C., 1999- Environmental of heavy metals in groundwater near mining area and development of heavy metal pollution index. J. Environ Sci Health A 34: 91-102.
Reza, R. and Sing, G., 2010- Heavy metal contamination and its indexing approach for river water. Environ. Sci tech 7(4): 785-792.
Schwartz, F. W. and Zhang, H., 2003- Fundamentals of Ground Water: John Wiley and Sons Inc.
Singh, P. K., Tiwarri, A. K., Panigarhy, B. P. and Mahato, M. K., 2013- Quality indices used for water resources vulnerability assessment using GIS technique: a review. Earth Sci Eng 6(6-1): 1594-1600.
Tamasi, G. and Cini, R., 2004- Heavy metals in drinking waters from Mount Amiata (Tuscany, Italy). Possible risks from arsenic for public health in the Province of Siena. Science of the Total Environment 327: 41-51.
WHO., 2003a- Aluminium in Drinking-water. World Health Organization.
WHO., 2003b- Chromium in Drinking-water. World Health Organization.
WHO., 2003c- Iron in Drinking-water. World Health Organization
WHO., 2003d- Zinc in Drinking-water. World Health Organization.
WHO., 2008- Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality. World Health Organization.
WHO., 2011a- Arsenic in Drinking-water. World Health Organization.
WHO., 2011b- Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality. World Health Organization.
WHO., 2011c- Manganese in Drinking-water Quality. World Health Organization.