Potential Impacts of Induced Bank Filtration on Surface Water Quality: A Conceptual Framework for Future Research

Abstract

Studies on induced bank filtration (IBF), a cost-effective and reliable drinking water production method, usually focus on processes affecting the target drinking water quality. We aim to expand this view by assessing potential impacts of IBF on surface water quality. We suggest that IBF can directly and indirectly affect several physical, chemical and biological processes in both the sediment and open water column, eventually leading to positive or negative changes in source water quality. Direct effects of IBF comprise water level fluctuations, changes in water level and retention time, and in organic content and redox conditions in littoral sediments. Indirect effects are mainly triggered by interrupting groundwater discharge into the surface water body. The latter may result in increased seasonal temperature variations in sediment and water and reduced discharge of solutes transported by groundwater such as nutrients and carbon dioxide. These changes can have cascading effects on various water quality, e.g., by facilitating toxic phytoplankton blooms. We propose investigating these potential effects of IBF in future field and laboratory studies to allow for more detailed insights into these yet unknown effects and their magnitude in order to assure a sustainable application of this valuable technique in the future.

Anthropic and Meteorological Controls on the Origin and Quality of Water at a Bank Filtration Site in Canada

“…Bank filtration (BF) is known as a cost-effective treatment step to produce drinking water [1,2]. This natural or artificially induced process occurs as surface water infiltrates into the aquifer from the banks and/or bed of a lake or a river and is subsequently intercepted by a pumping well [3]. During subsurface passage, water is exposed to physical, chemical, and biological processes, which may attenuate contaminants initially present in the surface water but also release unwanted minerals [4,5].…”

Natural Purification Through Soils: Risks and Opportunities of Sewage Effluent Reuse in Sub-surface Irrigation

“…Environmental fate of CoECs during soil passage in SSI will be affected by sorption and (bio)transformation processes and crop uptake (Gillefalk et al 2018;Nham et al 2015). These fate processes are affected by the intrinsic properties of CoECs, such as hydrophobicity, charge, ionization state, structure and molecular weight, as well as the extrinsic parameters of the system, such as residence times, cation exchange capacity, pH, temperature, and the structure of microbial communities (Arp et al 2017;Ren et al 2018;Schulze et al 2018Schulze et al , 2019.…”

Comparative Assessment of Fluvial Suspended Sediment Concentration Analysis Methods

“…The erosion of the main riverbed also changes the water supply of the tributaries and floodplains [3], which can lead to the isolation of tributaries and branch systems. The deposition of fine suspended sediment transport (silt and fine sand) can lead to the degradation of habitat quality [5] in the tributaries, sedimentation in the main riverbed can affect bank filtration systems [6,7], and changes flood conditions in floodplains [8]. Thus, fluvial sediment monitoring is a rather important task.…”