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Influence of the water–sediment interaction on the major ions chemistry and fluoride pollution in groundwater of the Older Alluvial Plains of Delhi, India

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Abstract

Fluoride (F–) pollution in groundwater of the Older Alluvial Plain (OAP) of Delhi has been reported as a major problem. About 34% of the groundwater samples collected for this study had F– level beyond the permissible limit; with F– concentration in the range of 0.14–3.15 mg/L (average 1.20 mg/L). In this context, this article for the first time attempts on the genesis of major ions chemistry and F– pollution in groundwater of OAP Delhi by going beyond the statistical analysis to sediment geochemistry, chemical weathering processes and understanding of the processes using stable environmental isotopes (2H and 18O). The XRD of the OAP sediments revealed the dominance of fluor-biotite, albite, calcite, quartz, and chlorite. Whereas, the separated clay revealed the dominance of chlorite, kaolinite, and illite minerals. The saturation index (SI) values indicated that the groundwater chemistry is in the process of further F– enrichment by way of sediment groundwater interaction. With the given mineralogy of the sediments, the dominance of major ions like Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl– and F– has been attributed to chemical weathering of biotites, phlogopites, albite, and calcite during sediment–water interaction. While the dominance of SO42– has been attributed to anthropogenic sources and confirmed by its association with heavier stable isotopes of hydrogen (δ2H: −50.44 to −40.02‰) and oxygen (δ18O: −7.19 to −5.62‰) indicating evaporative enrichment during isotopic fractionation.

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Acknowledgements

It is duly acknowledged that the present work is a part of the PhD of the first author (SA). The research is based on major ions data from unpublished MPhil dissertation of SA and AKY. Funding from the University of Delhi in the form of R&D project (2015–2016) to SS is duly acknowledged. SA and AKY acknowledge the non-NET fellowship provided by the University of Delhi. Thanks to Sachin Kumar Thakur for his support in analytical work. The authors would like to thank the editor and the reviewer for their scholarly comments, which helped in improving the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110 007, India

    Shakir Ali, Shashank Shekhar & Akhilesh Kumar Yadav

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Bombay, Mumbai, 400 076, India

    Trupti Chandrasekhar & Chandrashekhar Azad Kashyap

  3. Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132 001, India

    Naresh Kumar Arora

  4. KTH-International Groundwater Arsenic Research Group, Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Prosun Bhattacharya

  5. Department of Geology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, India

    S P Rai

  6. Department of Geology, Ram Lal Anand College, New Delhi, 110 021, India

    Prabhas Pande

  7. Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Hyderabad, Sangareddy, 502 285, India

    Dornadulla Chandrasekharam

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  1. Shakir Ali
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  2. Shashank Shekhar
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  4. Akhilesh Kumar Yadav
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  10. Dornadulla Chandrasekharam
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Contributions

The work was conceptualized by SA and SS. The fieldwork for the study was done by SA and AKY. The sediment and water analysis were handled by SA, AKY, TC, NKA, SPR, and PP. The manuscript was initiated by SA in consultation with SS and technical inputs were provided by TC, AKY, CAK, PB, and DC. The final manuscript was written in a series of joint seating by SA and SS and at times joined by AKY.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shashank Shekhar.

Additional information

Communicated by Dipankar Saha

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Ali, S., Shekhar, S., Chandrasekhar, T. et al. Influence of the water–sediment interaction on the major ions chemistry and fluoride pollution in groundwater of the Older Alluvial Plains of Delhi, India. J Earth Syst Sci 130, 98 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01585-3

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