Groundwater Quality Assessment in a Volcanic Mountain Range (South of Gran Canaria Island, Spain)

Ruiz-García Ruiz-García,Mena Mena,Carrascosa-Chisvert Carrascosa-Chisvert,Nuez Nuez,Santana Santana,Souto Souto

doi:10.3390/w11040754

Ruiz-García Ruiz-García, Mena Mena + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040754

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Abstract

The lack of rainfall in the Canary Islands’ Archipelago is leading to the depletion of the existing aquifers throughout the islands, above all in the easternmost isles (Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura). Due to the increasing water demand in the southern area of the Island of Gran Canaria, appropriate planning has become necessary in order to avoid the depletion of the phreatic water resources that can be found there. One of the most affected areas is the Amurga Mountain Range, where the existing aquifers are depleted, as shown in the Hydrological Plan of Gran Canaria. The aim of this study was to characterize the hydrochemistry of the above-mentioned groundwater bodies. Water quality monitoring was carried out over a period of five years, involving the survey of a total of 288 samples (over 4300 tests). The water from those aquifers has the characteristic of being fairly mineralized, with a prevalence of Cl−, Ca2+ and Na+ ions, salinity levels reaching 8646 mg/L, and chloride levels up to 4200 mg/L. The waters of these aquifers can be divided into two basic types, i.e., those containing high levels of sodium chloride, which can be found around the Tirajana Gorge; and the waters rich in magnesium chloride and sodium sulfate in the Arguineguín Gorge, as well as in the Amurga Massif itself.

Highlights

Groundwater plays an important role in arid and semi-arid regions as the Canary Islands.There are two main factors that affect groundwater use, the quantity and the quality.The variation of the abovementioned factors depends on the overexploitation [1,2], saltwater intrusion [3,4,5] and climate [6,7,8,9]
The analysis of the various types of water were described using the Piper diagrammatic method [41]. This diagram rates waters according to their chemical composition and indicates the prevailing chemical reactions occurring between the water and rocks
If we look at total dissolved solids (TDS), we ranked the water into two types, on the one hand, wells 1, 13–16, where TDS were >4000 mg/L, and on the other, wells where some levels did not even reach a value of 1000 mg/L

Summary

Introduction

Groundwater plays an important role in arid and semi-arid regions as the Canary Islands.There are two main factors that affect groundwater use, the quantity and the quality (hydrochemistry).The variation of the abovementioned factors depends (among other things) on the overexploitation [1,2], saltwater intrusion [3,4,5] and climate [6,7,8,9]. There are two main factors that affect groundwater use, the quantity and the quality (hydrochemistry). As a result of the huge economic and population changes experienced by the Canary Islands during the last three decades of the 20th Century, mainly in relation to the development of tourism, the use of underground water resources has been intensified [11,12,13]. This phenomenon has been aggravated in the southern area of the Island of Gran Canaria, where considerable activities related to

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