Hydrogeochemical Evaluation of Groundwater of the steel city Durgapur, West Bengal, India

摘要

Quality assessment of groundwater of the steel city Durgapur, West Bengal, India, was carried out to investigate what roles anthropogenic activities and various hydrogeochemical processes play on it, employing combinations of hydrogeochemical analyses and two multivariate statistical techniques, namely, cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Values of analyzed parameters, namely, Na, K, Ca2+, pH, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, hardness, Mg2+, HCO, NO, PO3-, SO2- and Cl reported wide variations which ranged from 49.50-248.50 mg/l, 1.70-225.00 mg/l, 29.70-217.40 mg/l, 4.90-6.83, 257-2501 -S/cm, 170-1273 mg/l, 16-568 mg/l, 1.90-48.60 mg/l, 40-520 mg/l, 0.99-15.42 mg/l, 0.02-1.00 mg/l, 6.51-182.46 mg/l and 19-314 mg/l respectively. Analyzed results demonstrated roles of natural hydrogeochemical processes like weathering of silicates and carbonates and exchange of ions as well as human-made developmental activities responsible for affecting the groundwater quality. Anthropogenic control on groundwater chemistry emerged as a basic concern especially in the industrial areas, where some assessed parameters recorded much elevated levels.