Hydrochemical Analysis and Evaluation of Groundwater Quality in and around Hosur, Krishnagiri District, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

The quality of groundwater of any area is of great importance for human being and irrigation. In order to evaluate the problems of pollution hazards of groundwater and to ascertain its suitability for drinking and irrigation purposes in Hosur region, Tamil Nadu. The study area is approximately 153 km² and underlain by the Granite Gneiss formation. Thirty five groundwater samples have been collected from Hosur region in October 2010 (pre-monsoon) and in January 2011(post-monsoon) and anlysed for physio-chemical parameters (pH, EC, TH, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, HCO₃^-, Cl^-, SO₄^2-, NO₃^-, F^-, Fe^-, Pb^-, Cr^-) in order to understand the hydrogeochemistry of the water. The groundwater is alkaline in nature and total hardness is observed in all samples fall under hard to very hard category. The fluoride concentration in the south region exceeds the permissible limit. The concentration of Iron, lead, chromium is below the detectable limit in most of well samples except in the wells in industrial area (SIPCOT) has exceeds the safe limit. Major hydro chemical facies were identified using piper trilinear diagram. The concentration of physiochemical constituents in the water samples were compared with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to know the suitability of water for drinking. Based on the analysis, most of the area falls in fresh water to slightly saline except at many locations in industrial area moderately saline in nature leading the water unsuitable for drinking. Various determinations such as Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Percent Sodium (Na%) and Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC) revealed that most of the samples are suitable for irrigation. It was observed that the quality of groundwater was not suitable for drinking purpose in industrial area and irrigation few sampling sites are unsuitable by the influences of urban and industrial waste discharge, aquifer material mineralogy, other anthropogenic activities and increased human interventions in the groundwater quality of the study area.