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Evaluation of quality and risk to human health of groundwater in a coastal coal-bearing graben basin, North China

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Abstract

Water quality assessments are essential for ensuring human and ecosystem health. This study conducted a water quality assessment on a typical coastal coal-bearing graben basin. Suitability of groundwater quality of the basin for drinking and agricultural irrigation was assessed. Hazards posed to human health by groundwater nitrate were assessed using the objective combined weight water quality index, percent sodium, sodium adsorption ratio, and health risk assessment model. The results indicated groundwater of the basin to be weakly alkaline hard-fresh or hard-brackish, and mean values of pH, total dissolved solids, and total hardness of 7.6, 1464.5 mg/L, and 794.1 mg/L, respectively. The ranks of groundwater cations and anions by abundance were Ca2+>Na+>Mg2+>K+ and HCO3−>NO3−>Cl−>SO42−>F−, respectively. The main groundwater type was Cl-Ca, followed by HCO3-Ca. The results of the water quality evaluation indicated that most groundwater in the study area is of a medium quality (38%), followed by poor (33%), and extremely poor (26%). Groundwater quality gradually worsened from inland to the coast. Groundwater of the basin was generally suitable for agricultural irrigation. Groundwater nitrate posed a hazard to over 60% of the exposed population, with infants most at risk, followed by children, adult females, and adult males.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere thanks to the editors and reviewers for their very helpful comments for the paper.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2021QD048) and Postdoctoral Innovation Project in Shandong Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth Science and Engineering, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, Shandong, China

    Jiutan Liu, Zongjun Gao, Yuqi Zhang, Min Wang & Jianguo Feng

  2. Shandong Provincial Lunan Geo-Engineering Exploration Institute (The Second Geological Brigade of Shandong Geological Exploration Bureau) Jining, Shandong, 272100, China

    Huiming Zheng

Authors
  1. Jiutan Liu
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  2. Huiming Zheng
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  3. Zongjun Gao
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  4. Yuqi Zhang
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  5. Min Wang
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  6. Jianguo Feng
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Contributions

Jiutan Liu: investigation, formal analysis, software, methodology, and writing—original draft. Huiming Zheng: software and methodology. Zongjun Gao: conceptualization, methodology, and writing—review and editing. Yuqi Zhang: formal analysis, software, and methodology. Min Wang: methodology. Jiganguo Feng: methodology.

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Correspondence to Zongjun Gao.

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Liu, J., Zheng, H., Gao, Z. et al. Evaluation of quality and risk to human health of groundwater in a coastal coal-bearing graben basin, North China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 66947–66960 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27178-9

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