Abstract
Arsenic poses a danger to environmental health, and arsenic-rich groundwater is a key exposure risk for humans. The distribution, migration, and enrichment of arsenic in groundwater is an important environmental and public health problem. Currently, the Huaihe River Basin is identified as a region of arsenic-rich groundwater in China. This study aims to assess arsenic-rich groundwater potential pollution risk, analyze the hydrogeochemical processes, and trace the ion source based on an analysis of groundwater hydrogeochemical data. The results show that arsenic is the main inorganic chemical substances affecting the water quality in the study area, which presents a high exposure risk for public health. The arsenic concentration of groundwater was f 5.75 ± 5.42 μg/L, and 23% of the considered samples exceeded the drinking water standards of the World Health Organization. The groundwater in the study area underwent evaporation, halite dissolution, and ion exchange processes. The total alkalinity (HCO3−) of the arsenic-rich groundwater mainly ranged between 400–700 mg/L, and the chemical type was mainly of HCO3-Na. In an alkaline environment, the oxidative dissolution and reductive dissolution of arsenic bearing minerals might be the formation mechanism of arsenic-rich groundwater.
Highlights
Arsenic (As) is ubiquitous in nature and listed as a Class I specific carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) [1,2,3]
Most of the samples were low-salinity fresh water (
The formation of arsenic-rich groundwater required the combined action of multiple factors in the process of water–rock interaction, such as the accumulation of arsenic-bearing minerals, the dissolution and precipitation of solid arsenic, and the hydrogeological conditions of arsenic enrichment
Summary
Arsenic (As) is ubiquitous in nature and listed as a Class I specific carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) [1,2,3]. The most sensitive toxicity threshold of As concentration in drinking water has not been determined. The recommended limit of As concentration in drinking water is 10 μg/L, according to the guidelines for drinking-water quality by the World Health Organization (WHO) [3]. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Research Council (NRC), the long-term consumption of water with As concentrations as low as 5 μg/L, or even 3 μg/L, might cause adverse chronic health effects on humans, especially cancer [4,5]. Drinking arsenic-rich groundwater is the main route for human exposure to this element.
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