Abstract
The objective of this study was to assess the pollution of groundwater in Yucatan aquifer. The study area is centered on the city of Merida, the main city of the Yucatán state and its surroundings. This aquifer supplies groundwater to urban, agricultural, and industrial activities. Due to its high degree of karstification, it is a very vulnerable area because water and any substance within infiltrates rapidly and could affect the quality of groundwater. Therefore, a groundwater sampling campaign was done to study different pollutants, such as NO3 −, Cl−, fecal coliforms, and organophosphorus compounds. Data were treated with geostatistical tools and different maps were obtained by kriging. The main sources of pollution are located close to the city of Merida, in addition to isolated points of rural or industrial areas. Pollution plume moves toward North or Northwest area. NO3 −, Cl−, organophosphorus compounds, and fecal coliforms are an issue of concern for groundwater quality.
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Acknowledgments
The first author (Rubén Alcaraz) acknowledges the funding from project 148167 “Evaluación de la calidad del agua en el Acuífero kárstico de Yucatán“of the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT-CONAGUA) and the studentship offered by Yucatan University. Rubén Alcaraz also acknowledges to the Master of Water Resources and Environment of the University of Málaga (Spain) the opportunity to participate in this project.
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Alcaraz, R., Graniel, E., Castro, A.F., Vadillo, I. (2015). Assessment of Groundwater Contamination in Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) by Geostatistical Analysis. In: Andreo, B., Carrasco, F., Durán, J., Jiménez, P., LaMoreaux, J. (eds) Hydrogeological and Environmental Investigations in Karst Systems. Environmental Earth Sciences, vol 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17435-3_49
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17435-3_49
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