Assessment of groundwater pollution due to tannery industries in and around Dindigul, Tamilnadu, India

The overexploitation of groundwater in some parts of the country induces water quality degradation. The untreated industrial effuents discharged on the surface causes severe groundwater pollution in the industrial belt of the country. This poses a problem of supply of hazard free drinking water in the rural parts of the country. There are about 80 tanneries operating in and around Dindigul town in upper Kodaganar river basin, Tamilnadu, India. The untreated effluents from the tanneries have considerably affected the quality of groundwater in this area. To assess the extent of groundwater deterioration, a detailed analysis of groundwater quality data has been carried out. The concentration of cations such as Calcium (Ca2+), Magnesium (Mg2+), Sodium (Na+) and Potassium (K+), and anions such as Bicarbonate (HCO3-), Sulphate (SO42-), Chloride (Cl-) and Nitrate (NO3-) in the groundwater have been studied. Apart from these constituents, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solid and total hardness (TH as CaCO3) were also studied. The correlation of these constituents with the EC has been carried out. The highest correlation is observed between EC and chloride with a correlation coefficient of 0.99. Progressive reduction in correlation coefficients for Mg2+, (Na++ K+), Ca2+ and SO42- are observed as 0.91, 0.87, 0.86 and 0.56, respectively. It is found that the quality of groundwater in the area under investigation is deteriorated mainly due to extensive use of salt in the leather industries.