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Hydrological control of As concentrations in Bangladesh groundwater
Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College, New York, New York, USA
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
School of Earth and Environmental Science, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, New York, USA
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
Departments of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
Departments of Earth and Environmental Engineering and Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
School of Earth and Environmental Science, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, New York, USA
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
Department of Geology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Department of Geology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Department of Geology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Department of Geology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, New York, USA
The elevated arsenic (As) content of groundwater from wells across Bangladesh and several other South Asian countries is estimated to slowly poison at least 100 million people. The heterogeneous distribution of dissolved arsenic in the subsurface complicates understanding of its release from the sediment matrix into the groundwater, as well as the design of mitigation strategies. Using the tritium-helium (3H/3He) groundwater dating technique, we show that there is a linear correlation between groundwater age at depths <20 m and dissolved As concentration, with an average slope of 19 μg L−1 yr−1 (monitoring wells only). We propose that either the kinetics of As mobilization or the removal of As by groundwater flushing is the mechanism underlying this relationship. In either case, the spatial variability of As concentrations in the top 20 m of the shallow aquifers can to a large extent be attributed to groundwater age controlled by the hydrogeological heterogeneity in the local groundwater flow system.
Received 11 August 2005; accepted 24 May 2007; published 26 September 2007.
Citation: (2007), Hydrological control of As concentrations in Bangladesh groundwater, Water Resour. Res., 43, W09417, doi:10.1029/2005WR004499.
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