Quality of groundwater in eastern Croatia. The problem of arsenic pollution

Abstract

Groundwater in the area of eastern Croatia contains high concentrations of iron, manganese, ammonia, organic substances and arsenic. The appearance of inorganic arsenic in groundwater is mainly caused by arsenic from natural geological sources. Since the groundwater is the main source of drinking water for the population in this area, almost 200,000 people are daily drinking water with arsenic concentration ranging from 10 to 610 μg/L. The Croatian legislation recently revised the maximum concentration limit (MCL) for arsenic in drinking water to 10 μg/L. The population in the two towns (Osijek and Vinkovci) of this region is supplied with groundwater processed by coagulation-filtration method, but in the other towns and villages water treatment implies only rapid sand filtration. Both methods for water treatment have resulted with higher arsenic concentration than MCL, so the main goal of this study was determination of population exposure to arsenic via drinking water and possible improvement of drinking water quality. Population exposure to arsenic via drinking water is determined with hair analysis, since the hair arsenic concentration is one of three most commonly employed biomarkers used to identify or quantify overall arsenic exposure. During this study the preliminary analyses of hair arsenic concentrations in several towns and villages in eastern Croatia were provided. The positive correlation between heightened arsenic concentration in drinking water and hair arsenic concentration was determined. In order to improve drinking water quality e.g. arsenic removal from contaminated drinking water, different modified adsorbents were used and compared (zeolite–clinoptilolite, manganese greensand and cationic exchange resin). Adsorbents were chemically modified and saturated with Fe(III) ions, while the arsenic solutions were prepared by processed groundwater.