Polemio M., 2016, Geochemical and hydrogeological study of groundwater quality degradation of a coastal karstic aquifer (southern Italy), 9th International Association of Hydrological Sciences Groundwater Quality Conference(GQ16), Shenzhen, China, 24-28/07/2016,
URL: http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/366115

The attention of local communities and authorities was focused on the level of groundwater nitrate of a wide coastal karstic aquifer, not far from the town of Bari (southern Italy), worried about the potential effect of sanitary and unsecure landfills. The study considered each potential source of nitrate, considering the type of local land use_ mineral fertilizers, septic waste, animal manure and landfill leachate. The hydrochemical investigation was conducted on groundwater of the limestone aquifer and on leachate samples. The most important chemical parameters (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, SO42-, NO3-) and some minor constituent (Fe, Mn, Hg, As, Zn) are taken into account. In particular the environmental isotopes of hydrogen (H), carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) were used to identify the groundwater provenance and geochemical reactions. The stable isotopes oxygen-18 (18O) and deuterium (2H) were used to investigate the origin of water in the aquifer system in the study area. The combination of NO3- concentration with ?15N-NO3- and 18O-NO3- in water also provides valuable information for identifying different sources of NO3- to the coastal aquifer. Samples of groundwater and leachate were analysed for 13C and Tritium (3H). Previous studies have demonstrated that the biogeochemical processes within the landfill environment can produce a unique composition for these isotopes, therefore they can be utilized successfully to delineate leachate influence. On-going results are discussed in details for each type of potential source of groundwater quality degradation.

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