Nature and origin of arsenic carriers in shallow aquifer sediments of Bengal Delta, India

Sengupta, S.; Mukherjee, Pinaki; Pal, T. K.; Shome, S.

doi:10.1007/s00254-004-0965-8

Cited by 54 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…0.05 mg/L and 46.67% for As ( 0.05 mg/L. The observation is similar to several studies that the highest As concentration in Bengal Basin ground waters is located in shallow sediments (, 60 m) (Acharyya et al, 1999(Acharyya et al, , 2000British Geological Survey and Mott MacDonald Ltd, 1999;Nickson et al, 2000;Chowdhury et al, 2001;McArthur et al, 2001;Dowling et al, 2002;Rahman et al, 2003;Sengupta et al, 2004). This can be attributed to the fact that these sediments began to be deposited about 11 000 years ago and have had the smallest amount of ground water flushing through them compared to the rest of the stratigraphic older sedimentary deposits below.…”

Section: Arsenic Distribution Patternsupporting

confidence: 91%

Geostatistical analysis of arsenic concentration in the groundwater of Malda district of West Bengal, India

Purkait

Mukherjee

2008

Front. Earth Sci. China

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The problem of arsenic (As) poisoning in the upper deltaic plain of the Ganga-Bhagirathi river system in the Bengal Basin of West Bengal, India is an alarming issue. Four blocks (Kaliachak-1, 2, 3 and English Bazar) of Malda district, West Bengal were critically studied. Geomorphologically, the area exhibits three terraces: the present Youngest terrace (T 0 -terrace), the Older Shaugaon Surface (T 1 -terrace) and the Oldest Baikunthapur Surface (T 2 -terrace). On the basis of numerous measurements, including As-content, pH, DO, specific conductivity and salinity, it was observed that maximum As-content beyond the permissible limit (0.05 mg/L, Indian standard) occurs within a depth range of 10-30 m with a non-linear distribution pattern. Variance test also found that a block effect was highly significant in an As-distribution pattern. Mean arsenic level of Kaliachak block-1 is 0.2253 mg/L, followed by Kaliachak-2 with arsenic level 0.1923, Kaliachak-3 with arsenic level 0.1755 and English Bazar with arsenic level 0.1324. The arsenious belt lies mainly within the Older terrace (T 1 ). The very recent flood plain deposits of silvery white, fine sands lying very close to the Ganga River margin do not contain significant amounts of As. Elevated As-concentration in the ground water was observed in alluvial sands, grayish white to brownish in color and occurring away from the Ganga margin. The Oldest terrace (T 2 ) further away from the Ganga margin (e.g. English Bazar) and Barind surface contains less arsenic. Barind surface acts as a hard capping with ferruginous sands and lateritic concretions -chocolate, mottled and purple brown in color -occurring northeast of the studied area. Arsenic content of ground water in the same locality within a radius of , 20 m varies within wide limits. Thus, it poses problem to delineate its distribution pattern. Such a patchy occurrence possibly could not be explained satisfactorily solely by geomorphology. Chemical analysis of aquifer clay samples of the cores shows a maximum Ascontent of up to 3 mg/kg, whereas the bulk samples (sandclay mixture) of the cores contain a maximum of 17 mg/kg As-value. Therefore, it is not always true that clay contains elevated As-value.

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Section: Arsenic Distribution Patternsupporting

confidence: 91%

Geostatistical analysis of arsenic concentration in the groundwater of Malda district of West Bengal, India

Purkait

Mukherjee

2008

Front. Earth Sci. China

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“…10 indicates that a maximum for the Fe 2+ concentration is reached, suggesting that part of the produced Fe 2+ is precipitated as a Fe(II) phase. Sengupta et al (2004) identified extensive precipitates of siderite in Bangladesh sediments and since the groundwater at Dan Phuong reaches high supersaturation for siderite ( Fig. 6) this mineral could be a Fe(II) sink at Dan Phuong as well.…”

Section: Degradation Of Organic Matter and Arsenic Mobilizationmentioning

confidence: 95%

Arsenic in groundwater of the Red River floodplain, Vietnam: Controlling geochemical processes and reactive transport modeling

Postma

Larsen

Huệ

et al. 2007

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta

352

284

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“…However, the most widespread arsenic contamination is detected in the Bhagirathi-Ganga delta, covering eastern part of West Bengal, India and Bangladesh, affecting 40 million inhabitants (Mandal et al 1996;Nickson et al 1998). It is suggested that the non-point source of geogenic arsenic occurs mostly in Holocene sediments (∼70 m) and probably mobilized by redox reaction (Saha 1991;Bhattacharya et al 1997;Nickson et al 1998;McArthur et al 2001;Ravenscroft et al 2001;Harvey et al 2002;Sengupta et al 2004). In the affected tracts, several million wells (hand pumps, shallow and heavy duty deep tube wells) are in use for drinking, irrigation, and industrial uses (Smith et al 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Arsenic-safe alternate aquifers and their hydraulic characteristics in contaminated areas of Middle Ganga Plain, Eastern India

Saha

Sahu

Chandra

2010

Environ Monit Assess

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Arsenic groundwater contamination exceeding 0.05 mg/l affecting the Newer Alluvial tracts of Patna and Bhojpur, the two worst affected districts located in the Middle Ganga Plain in the Bihar state, has been studied The area is underlain by two-tier Quaternary aquifer systems within a depth of 300 m below ground level, separated by a 15-32-m-thick clay/sandy clay aquitard. The upper part (<50 m depth) of the shallow aquifer system is arsenic-contaminated. The deeper aquifer system (lying below 120-130 m depth) exhibits low arsenic load (max 0.0035 mg/l), having hydraulic conductivity between 64.88 and 82.04 m/day. Groundwater in the deeper aquifer occurs under semi-confined to confined condition due to poor hydraulic conductivity of the middle clay (4.7×10(-2)-7.2×10(-3) m/day). Hydraulic head of the deeper aquifer remains close to the surface than the shallow aquifer. The two aquifer systems in the Newer Alluvium are replaced by a thick single aquifer system in the adjoining Older Alluvium, within a depth of 330 m below ground. In the arsenic-contaminated area, deeper aquifer is protected by a middle clay, which may be developed for community drinking water supply by deep tube wells having a yield capacity of 150 m3/h.

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Nature and origin of arsenic carriers in shallow aquifer sediments of Bengal Delta, India

Cited by 54 publications

References 20 publications

Geostatistical analysis of arsenic concentration in the groundwater of Malda district of West Bengal, India

Geostatistical analysis of arsenic concentration in the groundwater of Malda district of West Bengal, India

Arsenic in groundwater of the Red River floodplain, Vietnam: Controlling geochemical processes and reactive transport modeling

Arsenic-safe alternate aquifers and their hydraulic characteristics in contaminated areas of Middle Ganga Plain, Eastern India

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