Agricultural pollutant penetration and steady state in thick aquifers

Ground Water
G J KraftD J Mechenich

Abstract

The leakage of pollutants from agricultural lands to aquifers has increased greatly, driven by increasing fertilizer and pesticide use. Because this increase is recent, ground water pollutant concentrations, loads, and exports may also be increasing as pollutants penetrate more deeply into aquifers. We established in an aquifer profile a ground water recharge and pollutant leakage chronology in an agricultural landscape where 30 m of till blankets a 57-m thick sandstone aquifer. Pollutant concentrations increased from older ground water (1963) at the aquifer base to younger ground water (1985) at its top, a signal of increasing pollutant leakage. Nitrate-N increased from 0.9 to 13.2 mg/L, implying that leakage increased from 1.9 to 16.5 kg/ha/year. Nitrate load and export could increase from 130% to 230% before reaching a steady state in 20 to 40 years. Chloride increases were similar. Pesticide residues alachlor ethane sulfonic acid (ESA), metolachlor ESA, and atrazine residues partially penetrated the aquifer profile. Their concentration-age-date patterns exhibited an initial increase and then a leveling corresponding to the timing of product adoption and leveling of demand. Unlike NO(3), projecting pesticide residue steady s...Continue Reading

References

Sep 30, 1999·Environmental Health Perspectives·J D RouseJ Struger
Apr 5, 2001·Journal of Environmental Quality·D A GoolsbyR P Hooper
Jun 1, 2002·Environmental Science & Technology·Bernard T NolanBarbara C Ruddy
Nov 17, 2004·Environmental Science & Technology·Jeffrey K PostleJames P Vandenbrook

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Citations

Jun 29, 2011·Ground Water·George J KraftJessica Haucke
Sep 20, 2012·Environmental Monitoring and Assessment·Gurpal S ToorCraig D Stanley
Oct 24, 2020·Environmental Monitoring and Assessment·Paul D MathewsonOlga V Naidenko

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