Risk of groundwater contamination widely underestimated because of fast flow into aquifers
Andreas Hartmann
(1)
,
Scott Jasechko
(2)
,
Tom Gleeson
(3)
,
Yoshihide Wada
(4)
,
Bartolomé Andreo
(5)
,
Juan Antonio Barberá
(5)
,
Heike Brielmann
(6)
,
Lhoussaine Bouchaou
(7)
,
Jean-Baptiste Charlier
(8, 9)
,
W. George Darling
(10)
,
Maria Filippini
(11)
,
Jakob Garvelmann
(12)
,
Nico Goldscheider
(13)
,
Martin Kralik
(14)
,
Harald Kunstmann
(12)
,
Bernard Ladouche
(8, 9)
,
Jens Lange
(1)
,
Giorgia Lucianetti
(15)
,
José Francisco Martín
(5)
,
Matías Mudarra
(5)
,
Damián Sánchez
(5)
,
Christine Stumpp
(14)
,
Eleni Zagana
(16)
,
Thorsten Wagener
(17)
1
University of Freiburg [Freiburg]
2 UC Santa Barbara - University of California [Santa Barbara]
3 UVIC - University of Victoria [Canada]
4 IIASA - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [Laxenburg]
5 Universidad de Málaga [Málaga] = University of Málaga [Málaga]
6 Umweltbundesamt GmbH = Environment Agency Austria
7 Université Ibn Zohr [Agadir]
8 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
9 UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages
10 British Geological Survey [Wallingford]
11 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna
12 KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
13 INT - Institute of Nanotechnology [Karlsruhe]
14 University of Vienna [Vienna]
15 ROMA TRE - Università degli Studi Roma Tre = Roma Tre University
16 University of Patras
17 UWE Bristol - University of the West of England [Bristol]
2 UC Santa Barbara - University of California [Santa Barbara]
3 UVIC - University of Victoria [Canada]
4 IIASA - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [Laxenburg]
5 Universidad de Málaga [Málaga] = University of Málaga [Málaga]
6 Umweltbundesamt GmbH = Environment Agency Austria
7 Université Ibn Zohr [Agadir]
8 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
9 UMR G-EAU - Gestion de l'Eau, Acteurs, Usages
10 British Geological Survey [Wallingford]
11 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna
12 KIT - Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
13 INT - Institute of Nanotechnology [Karlsruhe]
14 University of Vienna [Vienna]
15 ROMA TRE - Università degli Studi Roma Tre = Roma Tre University
16 University of Patras
17 UWE Bristol - University of the West of England [Bristol]
Andreas Hartmann
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 760489
- ORCID : 0000-0003-0407-742X
Tom Gleeson
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 796954
- ORCID : 0000-0001-9493-7707
- IdRef : 200047493
Yoshihide Wada
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 759356
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4770-2539
Lhoussaine Bouchaou
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 761819
- ORCID : 0000-0003-4909-5023
- IdRef : 033537305
Jean-Baptiste Charlier
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 14619
- IdHAL : jbcharlier
- ORCID : 0000-0002-1268-8848
- IdRef : 12482644X
Nico Goldscheider
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 773603
- ORCID : 0000-0002-8428-5001
- IdRef : 119623285
Harald Kunstmann
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 796956
- ORCID : 0000-0001-9573-1743
Bernard Ladouche
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 745100
- IdHAL : bernard-ladouche
- ORCID : 0000-0001-9378-4462
- IdRef : 153603984
Thorsten Wagener
- Fonction : Auteur
- PersonId : 774913
- ORCID : 0000-0003-3881-5849
- IdRef : 086843427
Résumé
Groundwater pollution threatens human and ecosystem health in many regions around the globe. Fast flow to the groundwater through focused recharge is known to transmit short-lived pollutants into carbonate aquifers, endangering the quality of groundwaters where one quarter of the world’s population lives. However, the large-scale impact of such focused recharge on groundwater quality remains poorly understood. Here, we apply a continental-scale model to quantify the risk of groundwater contamination by degradable pollutants through focused recharge in the carbonate rock regions of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. We show that focused recharge is the primary reason for widespread rapid transport of contaminants to the groundwater. Where it occurs, the concentration of pollutants in groundwater recharge that have not yet degraded increases from <1% to around 20 to 50% of their concentrations during infiltration. Assuming realistic application rates, our simulations show that degradable pollutants like glyphosate can exceed their permissible concentrations by 3 to 19 times when reaching the groundwater. Our results are supported by independent estimates of young water fractions at 78 carbonate rock springs over Europe and a dataset of observed glyphosate concentrations in the groundwater. They imply that in times of continuing and increasing industrial and agricultural productivity, focused recharge may result in an underestimated and widespread risk to usable groundwater volumes.