Monitoring of groundwater quality with respect to fluoride contamination around Hindalco Industries Ltd. Renukut, Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

In the era of industrial advancement, fluoride is mainly contributed through runoff and leaching of phosphate fertilizers in agricultural land and liquid waste from industrial sources. Persistent use of fluoride contaminated coal in the thermal power plants and aluminium smelter plant can also heavily contribute fluoride in the groundwater. Since there are no major studies in the recent past, the present study was carried out to understand the groundwater quality in the investigated area. Groundwater samples were collected from 25 different locations around aluminium smelter plant from wells, shallow hand pump and deep hand pump during the month of June to September 2008 in Renukut district Sonbhadra for determining various parameters (pH, EC, Cl-, Ca2+, Mg2+ ,Na+, CO3 2-, HCO3-, Total Dissolved Solids, fluoride). The fluoride content in groundwater of Renukut ranged from 1.23 to 2.79 mg/L with average of 1.82 mg/L. 95% of the groundwater samples in the study area had crossed the permissible limit of fluoride in drinking water i.e., 1.5mg/L. The fluoride contamination to the groundwater during the post-monsoon season is mainly due to the seepage, moving and percolation of fluoride contaminated water nearby aluminium smelter plant and dissolution of fluoride bearing mineral under alkaline condition is the major source of fluoride in groundwater.