J. Dowlati; Gh. Lashkaripour; N. Hafezi Moghadas
Abstract
Zahedan aquifer is located in the northernof Zahedanwatedshed. It is essential to evaluate the quality of groundwater resources due to proving some part of drinking water, agricultural and industrial waters of this city. In order to carry out ground water quality monitoring, and assess the controlling ...
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Zahedan aquifer is located in the northernof Zahedanwatedshed. It is essential to evaluate the quality of groundwater resources due to proving some part of drinking water, agricultural and industrial waters of this city. In order to carry out ground water quality monitoring, and assess the controlling possesses and determine cations and anions sources of the groundwater, 26 wells were sampled and water quality parameters were measured.The results of the analysis showed that almost all of the samples proved very saline and electrical conductivity varied from 1,359 to 12,620μS cm−1. In the Zahedan aquifer, sodium, chloride and sulfate were predominant Cation and Anions respectively, and sodium-chloride Na-Cl( and sodium - sulfate)Na-So4) were dominant types of the groundwater. The factor analysis of samples results indicates that the two natural and human factors controlled about the 83/30% and 74/37% of the quality variations of the groundwater respectively in October and February. The first and major factor related to the natural processes of ion exchange and dissolution had a correlation with positive loadings of EC, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, Cl-, K+ and So42- and controls the 65.25% of the quality variations of the ground water in October and the 58.82% in February. The second factor related toCa2+, No3- constituted the18.05% of the quality variations in October and 15.56% in February, and given the urban development and less agricultural development in the aquifer, is dependent on human activities. For the samples collected in October, the saturation indices of calcite, gypsum and dolomite minerals showed saturated condition and calcite and dolomite in February showed saturated condition for more than 60% and 90% of samples and gypsum index revealed under-saturated condition for almost all samples.The unsaturated condition of Zahedan groundwater aquifer is resulted from the insufficient time for retaining water in the aquifer to dissolve the minerals. So42- and No3- Ions in more than 70 percent samples showed unnatural sources (the sewer infiltration).
