Screening of the trace-metal content in the artesian-well water samples from selected area in Croatia − determination by inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)

Abstract

Artesian-well waters are still in daily use in most of the rural provinces in Croatia. Many villages in northern part of the Republic of Croatia were affected by military activities during the period 1991-1995. Therefore, a screening of trace-metals content of artesian-well waters in those Croatian regions was carried out. The main goal of this screening was to investigate if there were some consequences of the military activities on the trace-metals content of the artesian-well waters. Multi-elemental determination was done using high-resolution inductively-coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HR ICP-MS). The list of the metals analyzed is as follows: Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sr, Ti, Tl, U, V, and Zn. The results of the measurements reveals that artesian-well waters were not burden by trace-metals that could be ascribed to the consequences of the military activities, i.e. to the use of ammunition. Consequently, it can be concluded that underground waters in those regions are free of pollution with trace-metals which would be originated from the ammunition. Generally, the concentrations of the majority of the determined trace-metals are under maximum allowed concentrations settled both by recommendations of World Health Organization and by directives of the Croatian Government. One important exception of this conclusion represents the case of As in artesian-wells situated in the north-eastern part of Croatia, where waters are highly burdened by As which is of well known natural, geological origin.