Abstract
Ingestion of inorganic arsenic through food and water can have severe adverse health effects on the human body. Therefore, government regulations and health guidelines for arsenic concentrations in water have been established around the world to avoid or mitigate these health effects. In recent decades, analysis of groundwater in many locations around the world have revealed arsenic concentrations that exceed government regulation levels. The section of the Carolina Terrane located in North Carolina is one of such recently discovered areas. This study investigates the relationship between the geologic units of the Carolina Terrane and arsenic concentrations in well water samples in Orange County, North Carolina. Kriging interpolation mapping and multivariate analysis reveals spatial and geochemical connections between wells of detectable arsenic and the Neoproterozoic epiclastics unit and geochemical variables such as F-, pH, and alkalinity. These associations imply that arsenic in Orange County, NC is being mobilized from authigenic arsenic-bearing sulfide minerals in the Neoproterozoic epiclastics bedrock unit by oxidative release likely associated with increased F-, pH, and alkalinity.
Highlights
Arsenic is an extremely pervasive, naturally occurring, and potentially hazardous element that is found in air, soil, water, organisms, and rocks
It appears that most of the wells in plutonic bodies have arsenic concentrations below detection limit (
This study found some potential mechanisms for natural arsenic release into groundwater in Orange County, NC involving an association of observed arsenic in wells and higher pH, alkalinity, F−, and hardness
Summary
Arsenic is an extremely pervasive, naturally occurring, and potentially hazardous element that is found in air, soil, water, organisms, and rocks. Most commonly found as arsenite (As3+) or arsenate (As5+), is mainly consumed by humans through drinking water (Maascheleyn et al, 1991; Welch et al, 2000; Kim et al, 2011), but can still be consumed if contaminated water is used for food preparation or irrigation (McCarty et al, 2011; World Health Organization, 2016). Excessive and chronic low-level arsenic exposure is associated with numerous negative health effects including, but not limited to death, lung and skin cancer, blackfoot disease, vascular and heart disease, skin problems, diabetes, and many more (Brown and Ross, 2002; Tseng, 2005; Kim et al, 2011; McCarty et al, 2011; Naujokas et al, 2013). This standard is not enforced by the EPA for private wells in the United States (Private Drinking Water Wells, 2018), so unnoticed arsenic contamination in private wells has the potential to lead to arsenic poisoning
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