Assessment of groundwater quality and usability of Salda Lake Basin (Burdur/Turkey) and health risk related to arsenic pollution

• Published in: Journal of environmental health science and engineering Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 681 - 706
• Main Authors: Varol, Simge, Davraz, Ayşen, Şener, Şehnaz, Şener, Erhan, Aksever, Fatma, Kırkan, Bülent, Tokgözlü, Ahmet
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-06-2021; BioMed Central Ltd
• Subjects: Arsenic; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental aspects; Environmental Economics; Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology; Environmental Health; Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice; Health; Health aspects; Heavy metals; Pollution; Quality of Life Research; Research Article; Risk assessment; Waste Management/Waste Technology; Water quality; Water, Underground; California; India; Groundwater; Health risk assessment; Salda Lake; Water quality index (WQI)
• ISSN: 2052-336X; 2052-336X
• DOI: 10.1007/s40201-021-00638-5

Purpose
In this study the aim was to analyze the seasonal concentration, groundwater quality, usage areas and arsenic-related health risk of major ions and heavy metals in groundwater samples collected from the Salda Lake basin.
Methods
In this study, 42 groundwater samples were collected from springs and wells in dry and wet seasons in 2015. Hydrogeochemical evaluations were made using different diagrams such as Piper and Gibbs diagrams. Groundwater quality was determined by the water quality index method (WQI) and different diagrams. Finally, health risk assessments related to arsenic were performed.
Results
The dominant water types are Mg-Ca-HCO
3
and Mg-HCO
3
in the wet season and Mg-HCO
3
and Mg-HCO
3
-CO
3
in the dry season. According to calculated WQI values ranged from 24.14 to 56.93 in the wet season ranged from 25.27 to 145.87 in dry season. This situation indicates that the quality of water samples is mostly good both seasons. As
T
concentrations were between 2.1–6.3 μg/L in the dry season and 2.9–10.5 μg/L in the wet season. The risk of developing cancer due to arsenic exposure in healthy adults or children is very low. But arsenic has high non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic potentially harmful effect in the study area. In addition, water samples are not appropriate for use as drinking water in terms of fertilizers and trace element concentrations. Also, MH will be an important problem in waters that will be used as irrigation water. The use of some samples is not recommended as it may cause crusting on metal surfaces in industrial areas.
Conclusions
According to the results obtained, the quality of groundwater in the study area should be monitored and the usage areas should be determined accordingly.