Groundwater nitrate contamination and risk assessment in an agricultural area, South Korea
2012
Cheong, Jae-Yeol | Hamm, Se-Yeong | Lee, Jeong-Hwan | Lee, Kwang-Sik | Woo, Nam-Chil
The nitrate of groundwater in the Gimpo agricultural area, South Korea, was characterized by means of nitrate concentration, nitrogen-isotope analysis, and the risk assessment of nitrogen. The groundwaters belonging to Ca–(Cl + NO3) and Na–(Cl + NO3) types displayed a higher average NO3 − concentration (79.4 mg/L), exceeding the Korean drinking water standard (<44.3 mg/L NO3 −). The relationship between δ18O–NO3 − values and δ15N–NO3 − values revealed that nearly all groundwater samples with δ15N–NO3 − of +7.57 to +13.5â° were affected by nitrate from manure/sewage as well as microbial nitrification and negligible denitrification. The risk assessment of nitrate for groundwater in the study area was carried out using the risk-based corrective action model since it was recognized that there is a necessity of a quantitative assessment of health hazard, as well as a simple estimation of nitrate concentration. All the groundwaters of higher nitrate concentration than the Korean drinking water standard (<44.3 mg/L NO3 −) belonged to the domain of the hazard index <1, indicating no health hazard by nitrate in groundwater in the study area. Further, the human exposure to the nitrate-contaminated soil was below the critical limit of non-carcinogenic risk.
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