Groundwater contamination

By: SIVAKUMARAN SIVARAMANAN

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Major sources of ground water contamination are fuel oil, chemicals such as pesticides, leakage from storage tanks, uncontrolled hazardous wastes, landfill leachate, road salts and atmospheric contaminants. Soil nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate can also contaminate in from inorganic fertilizers or chemical production plants, these factors make the ground water unsuitable for human consumption. Treating ground water is more complicated process as the aquifers are interconnected. In-situ bioremediation can be done in case of nitrate, perchlorate and sulphate contamination, microbial metabolism can be increased by the insertion of carbon source such as ethanol into the aquifer. Indirect methods such as pump and treat methods and declaration of groundwater source protection zones or reducing the agricultural inorganic fertilizer pollution or treating industrial effluent can be employed to save the quality of groundwater.