Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL EARTH SCIENCES
Volume 76, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s12665-017-6796-1
Keywords
Urban groundwater; Nitrate; Stable isotopes; Land use; Sewage
Funding
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [CRP F33020, CRP F33021]
- O.M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv
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A combined hydrochemical and stable isotope approach was used to investigate the origin of nitrate in the shallow unconfined groundwater of Kharkiv city, Eastern Ukraine. The contamination was investigated in the context of land use within the catchment area. The observed enrichment of sulfate, chloride and nitrate suggests significant groundwater contamination in the shallow urban aquifer, which is widely used as drinking water source for the urban population. Characteristic nitrate/chloride ratios as well as stable isotope ratios (N and O) of nitrate in the most contaminated springs confirmed that septic waste from leaky sewer systems was the main source of nitrate contamination in the groundwater. Nitrate contamination is linked to the type of land use and sewage treatment regime in the catchment area. It is also modulated by the regional hydrogeology, which determines the susceptibility of a given aquifer toward groundwater pollution. A more quantitative assessment of nitrate sources based on the nitrate isotope analysis alone is rather difficult. However, our study confirms that the combination of hydrochemical tracers, robust land-use analysis and nitrate stable isotope measurements represents a valuable approach to identify the origin of the nitrate contamination.
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