Abstract
Groundwater in the semiarid Rioverde basin in the northern part of Mexico was investigated with respect to major and minor elements including arsenic, as well as As(III) and As(V). The total arsenic concentrations varied from less than 5 to 50 g/L. The in situ arsenic determination method produced reliable results with deviations from –5.6 to 2.2 g/L compared to laboratory HGAAS. Since arsenic and barium were found to be inversely correlated, it was suspected that precipitation of barium arsenate controlled arsenic solubility. Thermodynamically modeling by means of PHREEQC indicated that BaHAsO4·H2O (not BaAsO4) might be a limiting phase, however only at higher concentrations than those determined in this study. Increased arsenic groundwater concentrations were found with lacustrine sediments and decreased concentrations with fluvial Quaternary sediments. Increased total arsenic concentrations correlate with increased As(III) concentrations in the groundwater of the lacustrine sediments.
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