Evolution of groundwater chemistry in and around Vaniyambadi Industrial Area: Differentiating the natural and anthropogenic sources of contamination
Introduction
Groundwater chemistry in the semi-arid region is controlled by number factors including geology, local hydrology–hydrogeology, rock–water interactions, evaporation, mineral dissolution and deposition, rainfall and to a larger extends anthropogenic activities. Groundwater caters majority of the population in the semi-arid regions, in the past few decades due to the increased pollution load and/or unavailability of adequate surface water resources. The cost of pumping, the major constraints of groundwater development may be negligible when comparing contamination chances and subsequent treatment requirement for surface water. The other major advantage is the availability of groundwater within the premises of common man. However, in certain industrial zones groundwater is equally or more prone to contamination as surface water.
Vaniyambadi is a hydrogeologically complex area, with numerous sources for the contamination of groundwater from the geogenic sources i.e., rock–water interaction, evaporation etc. As an add-on these area has several small scale leather industries which are contaminating the groundwater through its high saline effluents. Many researchers have reported the groundwater salinization in the immediate surroundings of tanning industries (Mondal et al., 2005, Srinivas et al., 1984, Kumar and Riyazuddin, 2010, Khwaja et al., 2001). Serious contamination of both surface water and groundwater has been observed in this area as a result of uncontrolled discharge of untreated effluents by these industries for the last three decades (Thangarajan, 1999). Tannery wastes are considered as one of the most hazardous industrial wastes (Ayoub et al., 2010). Dumping of high amount of industrial wastes of point and non-point sources may become harmful if hazardous heavy metals are present along with the common salt (Zahid et al., 2006). The major chemical constituents of the tannery effluents are sodium, chromium, magnesium, chlorides and sulphates (Rao and Thangarajan, 1999). Numerous health related issues including headache, stomachache, dizziness, night blindness, leprosy, dermatitis and other skin disorders were reported in humans by the consumption of tannery affected water (Parikh et al., 1995).
Numerous studies were carried out by researchers from different parts of the world to evaluate the salinization from tanneries and related groundwater contaminations. Rodrigues and Formoso (2006) studied the geochemistry of heavy metals in groundwater of Cadeia–Feitoria River basin, South Brazil and reported that level of chromium is exceeded the limit for drinking water. Similar cases were reported from Ranipet in Vellore, India (Rao et al., 2013, Sundar and Chandrasekaran, 2010). Geochemical methods in combination with multivariate statistical analysis are also proved as useful tool to identify the origin of contamination in tannery contaminated areas (Tariq et al., 2005, Gupta et al., 2007). Geophysical methods were also employed to delineate the groundwater contaminated zones (Mondal and Singh, 2004). Barker et al. (2001) effectively used sufficient resistivity contrast to identify sub-surface contaminated zones in Dindigul district, Tamil Nadu. Mass transport model is an effective tool to study the pollutant migration near the tanning industries (Thangarajan, 1999). This study is conducted in upper Palar river basin using TDS as tracer and reported that advection is the mode of pollutant migration. Author reported that groundwater remain as polluted for several years even after the contamination sources are stopped completely. Mondal and Singh (2012) used Cl− as tracer in mass transport modeling using MODFLOW in a tannery belt in southern India. They found that level of Cl− in groundwater will not reduce to the permissible limit even if the pollutant load reduced to 50% of the present level. This problem is frequently reported from many parts of Tamil Nadu particularly from Chennai (Brindha and Elango, 2012), Dindigul (Mondal et al., 2005) and Vellore (Sajil Kumar et al., 2011). In a global context, Zinabu and Pearce (2003) reported that concentrations of trace elements in the water bodies of nine Ethiopian rift-valley lakes and six rivers are above their permissible limit. Armienta-Hernandez and Rodriguez-Castillo (1995) studied the environmental exposure to chromium compounds in the valley of Leon, Mexico and identified hexavalent chromium from the tanning industry which causes intense health effects. However, it must be noted that most of these studies did not studied the groundwater–tannery effluent mixing with reference to the natural/anthropogenic sources.
The objective of this study was to investigate the groundwater evolution and to characterize the natural and anthropogenic influences with a special emphasis on groundwater–tannery effluent mixing, as starting point to initiate the remediation and/or controlling measures.
Section snippets
Study area settings
Present study is carried out in the Vaniyambadi region of Vellore district (Fig. 1), lies between the geographic coordinates (78′25″–78′47″) and (12′30″–12′40″). This is a typical semi-arid area in the Tamil Nadu state. The annual average rainfall is 949.8 mm, with a larger contribution from NE monsoon season during September–December. The mean daily minimum and maximum temperature are 18.2–36.8 °C and the highest is reported in May. Physiographically the region is undulating with hilly and
Groundwater sampling and analytical techniques
Fourteen groundwater samples were collected from the representative wells around the tannery cluster during January 2010. All the 14 wells are shallow wells with a depth ranging from 17 to 30 m. Prior to the collection, water from these wells was pumped out till the in situ parameters were stabilized. A handheld GPS (HC Garmin) were used to determine the geographical coordinates of individual sampling wells (see Fig. 1). Groundwater sampling and analytical techniques were carried out as per the
Hydrogeochemistry and water types
Results of the hydrochemical parameters and corresponding water types of individual groundwater samples are presented in Table 1. Among the physical parameters, pH ranges from 7.4-8.2 with an average 7.88, indicating the alkaline nature. Electrical conductivity in the groundwater varied from 810 to 3410 mg/L, with an average 1769 mg/L. This result indicates a wide range of water quality varying from fresh to saline water. In general the salinity has increased with respect to the groundwater flow
Conclusions
Geochemical evolution using hydrochemical and statistical methods in the Vaniyambadi area study shows that groundwater–saline water mixing is occurring near the industrial clusters. The samples in this region are characterized by higher concentration of EC, Cl− and Na with a Na-Cl water type and change whereas Ca2+–Mg2+–Cl− type occurs as a transition phase to Ca2+–Mg2+–HCO3− type occurring far away from the tanneries. Occurrence of Ca2+–Mg2+–Cl− type of water is a result of cation exchange
Acknowledgments
Author is thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which are helpful in improving the quality of manuscript.
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2022, Journal of Environmental RadioactivityCitation Excerpt :A broad classification of surface waters as affected by precipitation, rock-water interaction and evaporation can be done by plotting the analytical data on hydrogeochemical diagrams like those proposed by Gibbs (1970) and Kumar (2014), among others. Fig. 7 shows the insertion of the mean values reported in Tables 3–6 for surface waters (BAR, ARS, FUS and FES) in the bivariate plots of HCO3−/Na + vs. Ca2+/Na+ and Mg2+/Na + vs. Ca2+/Na+ as proposed by Kumar (2014). Despite their preponderant bicarbonate facies (Fig. 6) both these bivariate plots indicate that the carbonate dissolution in these waters is not favored in the study area if compared to the silicate weathering that has been identified as the major process controlling the surface waters solute content (Fig. 7).