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Contamination of Groundwater and Sediments with Heavy Metals Caused by Abundant Mine: A Case Study of Northern Basin of Tebessa, Algeria

S. Ghalmi, CH. Fehdi, F. Baali

Abstract



Throughout the current study a preliminary assessment on the impacts of mining activities and of inefficient water resources management on groundwater quality has been carried out, in semi-arid area, northern Tebessa basin, Algeria. Accordingly, a set of groundwater and soil samples was collected from Morsott –El Aouinet aquifer. The acquired samples have been analyzed under different physical and chemical parameters, according to the standard method which includes; pH, electrical conductivity, totals dissolved solids (TDS), total hardness, and total alkalinity, major cations, as Ca+2, Mg+2 and Fe+2 and major anions, as NO3-, Cl-, HCO3-2, SO42- , as well as heavy metals, such as Cd, Cu, Mn, Pb, Cyanide and Zn were added. The investigation of the obtained results averred that high concentrations of heavy metals were appeared on the groundwater samples. However, the samples taken from the unconfined aquifer (alluvial deposits) of the northern region (Mesloula area) and from the eastern part (Boukhadra Mine) showed the highest concentrations. In other hand, it has been proved that the quality deterioration of groundwater was also referred to geological saline soil. Thus, hydro-chemical end elements were identified and the water salinization sources were defined. Accordingly, the evaporation inside the Triassic rocks could be the main contributors of groundwater salinization.

Keywords


Groundwater, Soil leachate, Metallic contamination, salinity, semi-arid area.

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