Patchy distribution of high As groundwater has normally been observed in As-affected areas. Spatial and temporal evolutions help in better understanding mechanisms of As mobilization and in developing effective strategies for ensuring drinking water safety. Four multilevel samplers were installed approximately along the groundwater flow path to investigate spatial and temporal variations in groundwater As in the Hetao basin, Inner Mongolia. Both water chemistry and groundwater level were monitored for about two years. Groundwater As concentration generally showed increasing trends, and Eh values showed decreasing trends along the flow path, indicating that As was mobilized via reductive dissolution of Fe oxides. However, in evaporation discharge area, shallow groundwater As was generally lower than those upstream and downstream. In addition to evaporation, siderite and pyrite precipitations controlled groundwater As concentrations. The negative correlations between As concentration and SIpyrite (or SIsiderite) implied that siderite and pyrite precipitations wold scavenge groundwater As and lower As concentration. Temporal variation showed different trends in different locations. It may reflect replenishment of high/low As groundwater for the increase/decrease in As concentrations, resulting from water level fluctuation. The increase trends in groundwater As concentrations at depth around 15m in the discharge areas would result from the increase in the recharge of underlying groundwater (20m) with high As concentration due to enhanced evaporation in the seasons with high water levels. The investigation suggested that monitoring of groundwater As should be routinely carried out to ensure the drinking water safety in the As-affected areas.
Isotopic and chemical compositions of pore water(PW) are highly relevant to environmental and forensic study. Five lake water(LW)samples and five sediment samples were collected to investigate the effects of pore sizes of sediments on PW chemistry and stable isotopes and determine mechanisms controlling their variations. Six pore water fractions were extracted from different-sized pores in each sediment sample at six sequential centrifugal speeds for chemical and isotopic analysis. The sediments consisted mainly of quartz, feldspar, and clay minerals. The hydrogen and oxygen isotopic compositions of PW are mainly controlled by the overlying LW, although the lag effect of exchange between overlying LW and PW results in isotopic differences when recharge of LW is quicker than isotopic exchange in PW. Identical isotopic compositions of PW from sediments with different pore sizes indicate that isotopic exchange of water molecules with different pore sizes is a quick process. The ratio of average total dissolved solid(TDS) concentration of PW to TDS concentration of LW shows a strong relationship with adsorption capacity of sediments, demonstrating that remobilization of ions bound to sediments mainly causes a chemical shift from LW to PW.Concentrations of Ca^(2+), Mg^(2+),and Cl^-in PW remain unchanged,while concentrations of Na^+,K^+,and SO_4^(2-) slightly increase with decreasing pore size. Chemical differences of PW from sediments with different pore sizes are governed by ion adsorption properties and surface characteristics of different-si zed particles.
Groundwater arsenic (As) contamination is a hot issue,which is severe health concern worldwide.Recently,many Fe-based adsorbents have been used for As removal from solutions.Modified granular natural siderite (MGNS),a special hybrid Fe(II)/Fe(III) system,had higher adsorption capacity for As(III) than As(V),but the feasibility of its application in treating high-As groundwater is still unclear.In combination with transport modeling,laboratory column studies and field pilot tests were performed to reveal both mechanisms and factors controlling As removal by MGNS-filled filters.Results show that weakly acid pH and discontinuous treatment enhanced As(III) removal,with a throughput of 8700 bed volumes (BV) of 1.0 mg/L As(III) water at breakthrough of 10 mg/L As at pH 6.Influent HCO3^- inhibited As removal by the filters.Iron mineral species,SEM and XRD patterns of As-loading MGNS show that the important process contributing to high As(III) removal was the mineral transformation from siderite to goethite in the filter.The homogeneous surface diffusion modeling (HSDM) shows that competition between As(III) and HCO3^- with adsorption sites on MGNS was negligible.The inhibition of HCO3^- on As(III) removal was connected to inhibition of siderite dissolution and mineral transformation.Arsenic loadings were lower in field pilot tests than those in the laboratory experiments,showing that high concentrations of coexisting anions (especially HCO3^-- and SiO4^4-),high pH,low EBCT,and low groundwater temperature decreased As removal.It was suggested that acidification and aeration of high- As groundwater and discontinuous treatment would improve the MGNS filter performance of As removal from real high-As groundwater.
