Research paper
Heavy metal contamination, major ion chemistry and appraisal of the groundwater status in coastal aquifer, Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsd.2017.04.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • TDS, TH, TA and nitrate in most of the samples exceeded the guideline value.

  • Cation: Na+>Ca+2>Mg+2>K+ and anion: HCO3>Cl>NO3>SO4−2>PO4−3>Br>F.

  • The order of heavy metals was Zn>Fe>Mn>Ni>Cu.

  • Groundwater of the study area was observed to be fluoride deficient.

  • CCME WQI ranged between 65 and 79 for majority of wells.

Abstract

A total of 228 groundwater samples were collected at a depth of 10–30 feet below ground level (bgl) during one year period from nineteen wells around Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India which is known for nuclear installations. The studied aquifer mainly constitutes of sand and weathered charnockite with thickness varying from 3 to 12 m and is of unconfined nature. Physical parameters, major ions, and heavy metals level were compared with guideline values and water quality index. The order of dominance of cations and anions were; Na+>Ca+2>Mg+2>K+ and HCO3>Cl>NO3>SO4−2>PO4−3>Br>F. Four major water types (Ca-HCO3, Na-Cl, mixed Ca-Na-HCO3 and mixed Ca-Mg-Cl) were observed. Alkali metals (Na++K+) exceeded the alkaline earth (Ca+2+Mg+2) and weak acid (HCO3) exceeded the strong acid (Cl+SO4). The order of heavy metals was Zn>Fe>Mn>Ni>Cu. Bureau of Indian Standards compliance of total dissolved solids (26–27%), total alkalinity (35–44%), total hardness (24–27%) and nitrate (41–43%) indicated that most of the samples exceeded the acceptable limit for drinking water. High nitrate level with an average of 104.5 mg/l (82% samples exceeded BIS limit) was observed in the central part of the study area (between Kalpakkam township and nuclear site) and ascribed to the influence of domestic sewage and septic tank effluents. Observed low fluoride values in this study (avg. 0.1 mg/l) contradicted the earlier report of high level of fluoride from this location. Based on the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment Water Quality Index (CCME WQI), the water quality was classified as marginal to excellent class with a majority falling under fair category. Except for 4–5 wells which were categorized as marginal, the water quality in other wells was suitable for drinking. The studied wells formed spatial distinct groups based on the water quality ranking. The present study provides a comprehensive status of groundwater quality in terms of its suitability for human consumption.

Introduction

Depletion and contamination of surface water resources, has shifted the dependency of mankind on surface water to groundwater for their domestic, irrigation and industrial needs (Nagarajan et al., 2010). As per global estimates, 60% of groundwater withdrawn is used for agriculture and the rest 40% is almost equally shared between the domestic and industrial sectors (Vrba and van der Gun, 2004). Domestic requirement of groundwater in many nations is in excess of 50% of the total groundwater withdrawn and globally around 25–40% of the drinking requirement is met from groundwater (NGWA, 2013). About 85% of India's rural domestic water requirements, 50% of its urban water requirements and more than 50% of its irrigation requirements are being met from groundwater resources (CGWB, 2014). In recent years, due to rapid growth of population, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture activities, ground water resources are under stress and there is growing concern on deterioration of groundwater quality. The groundwater quality of a particular region is governed by local geochemical and hydrological processes. Moreover, groundwater flow and residence time is controlled by topographic features like flow direction, slope, aspect, relief of landscapes etc. Anthropological attributes such as irrigation return flow, agro fertilizers, sewage, and septic tank effluents, animal waste and industrial wastes greatly alters the quality of groundwater (Vetrimurugan et al., 2013). Contamination of groundwater with anthropogenic wastes is a major problem in densely populated and heavily industrialized areas with shallow aquifers (Arumugam and Elangovan, 2009; Krishna Kumar et al., 2014). The problem can be more prominent in rural areas than their urban counter parts due to unmanaged waste disposal and lack of water treatment facility. Saline water intrusion to groundwater is other major source of groundwater contamination in coastal aquifers of India and other countries (Gopinath et al., 2016, Mtoni et al., 2013). Excess demand of groundwater for domestic and irrigation requirements in highly populated coastal regions leads to saltwater intrusion when the withdrawal exceeds the recharge rate (Mohsen et al., 1990, Mahesha and Lakshmikant, 2014). Coastal aquifers are potentially at risk of salt water intrusion, particularly in arid and semi-arid climatic regions due to scarcity of rain and high evaporation combined with over exploitation of groundwater (Grundmann et al., 2016).

All the major constituents and many of the trace elements present in groundwater are essential for metabolism and human health (WHO, 2005a, WHO, 2005b, WHO, 2005c). Regulatory agencies have formulated guidelines values for the chemical, physical and biological constituents of water in order to assess its suitability for human consumption. Suitability of groundwater for human consumption with respect to its contamination with various water quality parameters in different parts of India has been reported by Srikanth et al. (1993), Brindha et al. (2011), Bhattacharya et al. (2011), Mazumder et al. (2013), Biswas et al. (2014), Sankar et al. (2014) and Samantara et al. (2015). Many authors have reported the deleterious effects of poor drinking quality water on health in many parts of the world (Cantor, 1997, Fewtrell, 2004, Ayoob and Gupta, 2006). According to UNESCO (2007) report, 80% of the diseases and deaths in developing countries are related to water contamination (Vetrimurugan et al., 2013).

Groundwater quality of a particular region varies with space and time due to various natural hydrogeological processes (Mukherjee et al., 2014) and inputs from anthropogenic sources. Changes in the origin and constitution of the recharged water, hydrologic and human factors contribute to the temporal variation in groundwater quality (Vasanthavigar et al., 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the water quality from time to time and ascertain its suitability for drinking. The most rapid, standard and universal way to evaluate the groundwater quality is the chemical analysis and its comparison with regulatory guidelines and indices established by scientific community, government body and international organizations for water quality based on human health effects (WHO, 2005a, WHO, 2005b, WHO, 2005c).

The present study on groundwater quality was carried out in shallow coastal aquifer located around Kalpakkam, situated in the vicinity of nuclear establishments. Previous studies on groundwater of this area were primarily dealt with the groundwater geochemistry (Gurumoorthy et al., 2004; Elango and Shivkumar, 2008; Sasidhar and Vijay Kumar, 2008; Karmegam et al., 2010; Mondal et al., 2010, Mondal et al., 2011; Rani and Sasidhar, 2011; Chidambaram et al., 2011a, Chidambaram et al., 2011b, Chidambaram et al., 2012; Seshadri et al., 2013; Kanagaraj et al., 2015). However, a comprehensive study on groundwater quality of the shallow aquifer with respect to its spatio-temporal suitability for human consumption was lacking. Groundwater of this area is impacted by the agricultural activities from the surrounding agricultural land and ingress of polluted water from Buckingham canal which carries contaminated effluents from the small scale industries situated all along. Moreover increased industrialization in the recent past and resulting overexploitation of groundwater has enhanced the possibilities of saltwater ingression into the groundwater. In this study, spatio-temporal variations in groundwater quality were investigated with respect to its potability. Based on the water quality index calculated and comparison with guidelines, suitability of the water for drinking and possible health impacts is discussed.

Section snippets

Study area

The study area Kalpakkam lies between 80°08'25'' to 80°11'17'' E longitude and 12°30'12'' to 12°34'52'' N latitude (Fig. 1a), situated nearly 70 km south of Chennai city. The area is surrounded by Bay of Bengal on the east, Edaiyur backwater on the north, Buckingham canal on the west and Sadras backwater on the south. The river Palar drains into the sea near the study area. Southern end of the study area host a Government employee township having a population of about 20,000 and northern end is

Methodology

To evaluate the spatio-temporal character of groundwater quality, 228 groundwater samples were collected during June 2011 to May 2012. Samples were collected monthly once from 19 representative wells consisting of 5 open wells (W2, 3, 12, 13 and 16), 9 hand pumps (W1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14 and 15) and 5 bore wells (W4, 6, 17, 18 and 19) distributed across the study area. Depth of the wells varied from 10 to 50 feet below ground level (bgl). The study area can be divided into three different

Hydrochemical facies

The statistical summary of groundwater quality parameters is provided in Table 1. In order to understand the geochemical evolution of groundwater in different seasons, concentrations of cations and anions for pre-monsoon (PRM), monsoon (MON) and post-monsoon (POM) seasons are plotted in the Piper (1944) trilinear diagram (Fig. 2a, b, c). Four major water types were observed for all the three seasons with the interplay of (Na++K+) and Ca+2 in the cations and HCO3 and Cl in the anions. The

Conclusion

The groundwater of the study area remained slightly acidic to slightly alkaline, fresh to brackish and hard to very hard in nature during the study period. Geochemical evolution of groundwater was interpreted from Piper plot and four distinguished groundwater types were noticed. The major water type was fresh water and the other was saline water. Studied TDS, TA, TH and nitrate concentration in a majority of wells exceeded the guideline limit making the water unfit for drinking purpose.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to Director, IGCAR, Kalpakkam for his constant encouragement and support in the pursuit of environmental research. The authors thank Dr. C. Anandan, Safety Research Institute, AERB, Kalpakkam for his help in preparing the land use and geology map of the study area.

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