engleski

Distribution and speciation of arsenic in groundwaters and tap waters of Eastern Croatia

Arsenic presence in the groundwater of Eastern Croatia has been evidenced almost 20 years ago, however the extent of this anomaly is still unknown. There is a growing need to improve knowledge on arsenic distribution in the region as well on As speciation since As(III) is more toxic and less strongly retained in water treatment processes. Different method for As speciation determination and species preservation have been proposed in the literature, however As species preservation is still subject of scientific debate. In the present study, two analytical approaches (HPLC-ICP-MS and field speciation) were used to study arsenic speciation in raw groundwaters (at 31 different locations) and tap waters (at 11 locations). Samples for laboratory speciation were preserved with EDTA, as commonly used preservative when using HPLC-ICP-MS technique. It was shown that alone EDTA conservation is not sufficient for species preservation, at least for longer sample storage period. We showed that shallow aquifers were not contaminated by arsenic, while deeper aquifers were generally more affected. Arsenic in the tested groundwaters were present predominantly in dissolved form as As(III). As(V) was predominant species at the residents’ tap water. These results, which contributed to a greater understanding of hydrogeochemical settings in the area, have important implications as to the protection of public health as well as to the proposal of a cost-effective arsenic removal technology.

groundwater, arsenic, speciation, Eastern Croatia, distribution system

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop ; DOI: 10.1007/978-90-481-3497-7