TITLE:
Hydrochemistry for the Assessment of Groundwater Quality in Korea
AUTHORS:
Jong Yeon Hwang, Sunhwa Park, Hyun-Koo Kim, Moon-Su Kim, Hun-Je Jo, Ji-In Kim, Gyeong-Mi Lee, In-Kyu Shin, Tae-Seung Kim
KEYWORDS:
Geochemical Characteristics, Piper Diagram, Gibbs Diagram, Wilcox Diagram, US Salinity Laboratory’s Diagram, Chadah Diagram, Rock-Water Deduction
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment,
Vol.6 No.1,
December
6,
2016
ABSTRACT: Understanding of the aquifer hydraulic properties and hydrochemical characteristics of water is crucial for management plan and study skims in the target area, and flow motions and chemical species of groundwater are regarded as precious information on the geological history of the aquifers and the suitability of various usages. Cations and anions of groundwater are used to estimate the characteristics and origin of groundwater. In this study, we try to evaluate the quality of groundwater based on the comparison of the physiochemical characteristics and distribution of cations and anions in groundwater from rural areas. Therefore we focused on the evaluation of groundwater as some specific purposes such as agricultural and industrial use, general types of groundwater, lithological origin of chemical component in groundwater. In this point of view, major objectives of this study were grouped as following three categories: 1) quality assessment of groundwater as a special usage (agricultural, industrial); 2) determination of groundwater types; 3) tracing of ion sources of groundwater. The quality of agricultural water was evaluated using SAR, sodium (%), RSC, PI, SSP, MH, PS, and Kelly’s ratio, and was classified as SAR (Excellent (100%)), Sodium ((Excellent (34%), Good (55%), Permissible (9%), Doubtful (1.6%), Unsuitable (0.4%)), RSC (Good (95.7%), Medium (3.5%), Bad (0.8%)), PI((Excellent (40.6%), Good (59%), Unsuitable (0.4%)), SSP ((Excellent (26.3%), Good (59.8%), Fair (13.1%), Poor (0.8%)), MH ((Acceptable (94.4%), Non-Acceptable (5.6%)), Kelly’s Ratio ((Permissible (93%), Non-Permissible (7%)), PS ((Excellent to Good (98%), Good to Injurious (1.2%), and Injurious to Unsatisfactory (0.2%)). Evaluation based on the Wilcox diagram was classified as “excellent to good” or “good to permissible”, and the water quality evaluated using the U.S. salinity Laboratory’s Diagram was classified as C1S1 (Excellent/Excellent) and C2S1 (Good/Excellent). And, in the applications of two factors of Langelier Saturation Index (LSI) and Corrosive ratio (CR), we could get similar results for defining the suitabilities of groundwater for the industrial purpose. And the groundwater samples were also classified groundwater using the Piper diagram and estimated the origin of ions using the Gibbs and Chadah diagram, and the classifications based on the Piper diagram showed that the types of the groundwater are typeand type. And, estimation of dominance type (evaporation, rock, precipitation) based on the Gibbs diagram showed that the origin of anion and cation in groundwater are from the rock-dominance, and the estimation of origin of anions using the Chadha diagram showed that the most of the ionic species was originated from the interactions between alkaline earths and alkali metals contained in the soil. And through the source-rock deduction followed by the comparison of Gibbs and Chadah diagram, it was shown that the chemical components in the groundwater were mostly induced from the water-rock deduction and major types of groundwater samples following the Chadah diagram were categorized such as following group types: dolomite type, gypsum type, alkaline and alkaline earth type.