Assessment of Groundwater Quality and Human Health Risk (HHR) Evaluation of Nitrate in the Central-Western Guanzhong Basin, China

Abstract

To investigate the quality of domestic groundwater and assess its risk to inhabitants of the Guanzhong Basin, China, 191 groundwater samples were collected to analyze major ions, nitrate, pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness (TH), and electrical conductivity (EC). The physiochemical parameters, hydrochemical facies, and sources of major ions were analyzed using Durov diagrams, bivariate diagrams, and chloro-alkaline indices (CAI-I and CAI-II). The suitability of groundwater for drinking, the nitrate distribution, and human health risk (HHR) for different age groups were evaluated. The results showed that the relative abundance of cations in the groundwater samples was K++Na+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+, while that of anions was HCO3− > SO42− > Cl− > NO3−. Groundwater samples mainly contained HCO3-Na and HCO3-Ca, which were introduced mainly by rock weathering and ion exchange. The groundwater in the Guanzhong Basin contained mainly good and medium water, and the groundwater in the southern part of the Wei River was better than that north of the Wei River. Areas containing high nitrate concentrations were mainly located in the central and western parts of the Guanzhong Basin. The percentages of low risk (<45 mg/L), high risk (45–100 mg/L), and very high risk (>100 mg/L) of nitrate pollution in the study area were 90.58%, 8.9%, and 0.52%, respectively. The HHR assessment results indicated that people in the 6–12 month age group were more likely to suffer from health complications due to a higher nitrate concentration, followed by 6–11 years, 21–65 years, 18–21 years, ≥65 years, 11–16 years, and 16–18 years age groups, which was mainly due to the different exposure parameters. The results of this study will be useful in regional groundwater management and protection.

A Novel Approach for Indexing Heavy Metals Pollution to Assess Groundwater Quality for Drinking Purposes

“…Heavy metals contamination is posing a major problem to the aquatic environment and, therefore, are hazardous towards living beings [4,5]. Many prior studies concluded that there is an adverse health effect related to heavy metals exposure [6,7]. Water quality for the designated purpose is a function of water parameters concentration value with their desirable and permissible limits as per national and world health organization standards.…”

“…Also, the expression of MI and PoS are given in Equations (5) and (7). The influence of the sub-index for each heavy metal will be added to the overall index even when M i is less than MAC, leading to an erroneous increase of MI and PoS.…”

Hydrochemical appraisal of groundwater quality for drinking and irrigation: a case study in parts of southwest coast of Tamil Nadu, India

“…As per WHO 2011 standard, few water samples exceed the limit for drinking during January and June. Higher EC content in the samples endorses the enrichment of salts in the groundwater (Zhang et al 2019). In the study area, the TDS value ranged from 60 to 1294 mg/l during January and varied from 53 to 1384 mg/l during June (Fig.…”

Distribution of Nitrate Content in Groundwater and Evaluation of Potential Health Risks: A Case Study of Rural Areas in Northern China

“…With the rapid development of the social economy, the natural environment is constantly being polluted by humans [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]. Groundwater is an important resource for human survival, and it is also an important consumable for industrial development such as coal mining in the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China [ 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”

“…The coal seams in northern China mainly exist in the Jurassic strata, which contains several aquifers [ 3 , 18 , 19 ]. The mining of these coal seams will affect the quantity and quality of groundwater in the overlying aquifer, increase the circulation of groundwater, and cause water inrush and water pollution [ 20 ].…”