Monitoring of Groundwater Quality in Some Vulnerable Areas in Botosani County for Nitrates and Nitrites Based Pollutants

Abstract

This paper emphasizes a groundwater quality assessment using thirty-seven hydro-geological drillings, located in vulnerable and non-vulnerable areas in Botosani County as regarding nitrate and nitrites based pollutants and also phosphates and ammonium, during 2001-2008. The groundwater quality from vulnerable areas is within allowed limits. It was observed a decrease of nitrates and nitrites concentration in four locations designated as vulnerable zones regarding nitrates. In non-vulnerable areas, the groundwater quality deteriorated between 2006-2008, in terms of ammonium, nitrites and nitrates content. In some hydrogeological drillings, like Sadoveni and Stefanesti, the nitrites concentration (1.54 mg/L, 1.37 mg/L respectively) exceeded the legal accepted limit. The ammonium concentration in non-vulnerable areas also exceeded the limit of 0.5 mg/L. By token of the results of this monitoring activity the risk of groundwater pollution with nitrates was reassessed. MMDD Order 1552/743/2008 approved a new list of localities where sources of nitrates exist from agricultural activities; in Botosani County seventy-seven new localities were designated as vulnerable areas regarding nitrates pollutants.

Nitrate Adsorption on Clay Kaolin: Batch Tests

“…Four different initial concentrations, mentioned in Section 2.2, were used to assess the capability of kaolin on nitrate adsorption. The percentage and the amount of nitrate adsorption at equilibrium concentration for all initial concentrations were calculated using (1) and (2), which are shown in Table 2. Table 2 revealed that initial nitrate concentration has an effect on the amount of nitrate adsorption at equilibrium.…”

“…Groundwater and soil can be polluted through various anthropogenic activities such as pesticide use and industrial processes [1]. The breaking of the ecological equilibrium between human being and the nature is the main reason of environmental contamination issue [2]. Since 1970s nitrate leaching to subsoil has become an important environmental quality and human health issue, especially due to high use of nitrogen as nutrient in agriculture [3][4][5].…”

“…Based on the literature review, it can be remarked that though many efforts have been taken to investigate the behaviour of nitrate movement in different soils, the knowledge on the effect of kaolin on nitrate retention at low pH is still unknown. The objectives of the present study are (1) to assess nitrate adsorption by clay kaolin under acidic condition; (2) to find adsorption isotherm model to evaluate the adsorption capacity of kaolin; and (3) to predict retardation factor of nitrate movement in porous media in the presence of clay kaolin. It is expected that the present study will help to improve knowledge on nitrate movement in clay under acidic condition which in turn will help to prevent groundwater contamination and keep nitrate in root zone for plant uptake.…”

Characterization of the Acid-Base Character of Burned Clay Ceramics Used for Water Decontamination

“…Generally, because of the different mineralogical nature of the base clay (composed of kaolinite, montmorillonite, chlorite, halloysite, illite, vermiculite, smectite, pyrophyllite, etc.) and of the firing technology, but also the foundations, plasticizers and other additives employed in the manufacturing, the acid-basic character, given by the marginal groups, varies widely, from weakly acidic (pH ≤ 4,5) to weakly alkaline (pH ≤ 9,5) [1,2,3,4,5,6]. An important role in the capacity for ionic exchange is that of the porosity and, respectively, the active surface area of the granulite’s.…”

Risks Associated of the Waters from Hydric Systems Urban`s. The case of the rio Barigui, south of Brazil

“…In urban water systems, the concentrations of metallic species, nutrients and organic matter are, in general, several times higher than levels found in other stretches of a nonurbanized river, and may express significant damages to the ecosystem [14][15][16][17][18][19]. Metallic species differ from organic pollutants because they are not degradable and may accumulate in organisms and environmental compartments influencing their toxicity [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”