Hydrogeochemical characterization of contaminated groundwater in Patancheru industrial area, southern India.

The groundwater is one of the most contaminated natural resources in Patancheru industrial area due to unplanned and haphazard industrial growth and urbanization without following basic pollution control norms. The rapid industrialization initiated in early 1970 has started showing up its after effects few years later in the form of physiochemical contamination of the both surface and groundwater bodies of the area. It has resulted in local people being deprived of safe drinking water, plant and aquatic life has severely affected, and situation is deteriorating over the years in the area in spite of some preventive and remedial measures being initiated. The focus of the present study is to understand the chemical characteristics of groundwater and geochemical processes the contaminant water is undergoing which are normally imprinted in its ionic assemblages. The water samples collected in pre- and post-monsoon seasons from forty two groundwater and four surface water sources were analyzed for major constituents such as Ca(2+), Mg(2+), Na(+), K(+), CO (3) (-) , HCO (3) (-) , Cl(-), SO (4) (2-) , NO (3) (-) , and F(-), and selected samples were tested for ten important trace metals like Fe, Pb, Bi, Mn, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Cd. Na(+) among cations and Cl(-) among anions dominate the water in both the seasons where as Ca(2+), HCO (3) (-) , and Cl(-) show significant reduction in their ionic strength in post-monsoon. The groundwater in general is of mixed type, but most of it belong to Na(+)-Cl(-), Na(+)-HCO (3) (-) , Ca(2+)-Mg(2+)-HCO (3) (-) , and Ca(2+)-Mg(2+)-Cl(-) facies. The Na(+) and Ca(2+) are in the transitional state with Na(+) replacing Ca(2+) and HCO (3) (-) -Cl(-) due to physiochemical changes in the aquifer system. The evaluation of hydrochemistry through various ionic indices, ratios, and plots suggest that silicate-carbonate weathering, ion exchange, dissolution, and evaporation processes are responsible for origin of the present chemical status of the groundwater which is also controlled by the contamination from extraneous sources that could have accelerated the dissolution processes. Gibbs plots authenticate that the evolution of water chemistry is influenced by interaction of percolating water with aquifer matrix apart from anthropogenic enrichment of elements which get over concentrated due to evaporation.