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Mobilisation processes responsible for iron and manganese contamination of groundwater in Central Adriatic Italy

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Abstract

Iron and manganese are two of the most common contaminants that exceed the threshold imposed by international and national legislation. When these contamination occurs in groundwater, the use of the water resource is forbidden for any purposes. Several studies investigated these two metals in groundwater, but research focused in the Central Adriatic area are still lacking. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the origin of Fe and Mn contamination in groundwater and the hydrogeochemical processes that can enrich aquifers with these metals. This work is based on hydrogeochemical and multivariate statistical analysis of analytical results undertaken on soils and groundwater. Fe and Mn contamination are widespread in the alluvial aquifers, and their distribution is regulated by local conditions (i.e. long residence time, presence of peat or organic-rich fine sediments or anthropic pollution) that control redox processes in the aquifers and favour the mobilisation of these two metals in groundwater. The concentration of iron and manganese identified within soil indicates that the latter are a concrete source of the two metals. Anthropic impact on Fe and Mn contamination of groundwater is not related to agricultural activities, but on the contrary, the contribution of hydrocarbons (e.g. spills) is evident.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Regione Abruzzo “Servizio Qualità delle Acque” and the Agenzia Regionale per la Tutela dell’Ambiente (ARTA) – “Progetto Inquinamento Diffuso” for making the groundwater analytical results available. The authors also wish to thank the Agenzia Regionale per i Servizi di Sviluppo Agricolo in Abruzzo (ARSSA) for making the soil analytical results available for this study. The authors are also grateful to reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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  1. Engineering and Geology Department (InGeo), University “G. d’Annunzio” Chieti-Pescara, Via dei Vestini 30, 66013, Chieti, Scalo (CH), Italy

    William Palmucci, Sergio Rusi & Diego Di Curzio

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  1. William Palmucci
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Palmucci, W., Rusi, S. & Di Curzio, D. Mobilisation processes responsible for iron and manganese contamination of groundwater in Central Adriatic Italy. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 11790–11805 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6371-4

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