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Source identification and health risks of nitrate contamination in shallow groundwater: a case study in Subei Lake basin

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Abstract

Nitrate pollution of groundwater has become a global concern as it can affect drinking water quality and human health. In this paper, an extensive hydrochemical investigation was performed to assess the spatial distribution, source identification, and health risk of groundwater nitrate pollution in the Subei Lake basin. The prevalent pollutant, nitrate (NO3−), was identified based on descriptive statistical method and box plots, and most of the other parameters of groundwater samples met water standards and can be used for drinking purpose. The results showed that nearly 23.53% of groundwater samples displays the NO3− concentrations higher than the limit of 50 mg/L recommended by the World Health Organization, and the highest nitrate content (199 mg/L) is mainly distributed around the Mukai Lake. Piper triangle diagram demonstrated that the dominated anions of hydrochemical types exhibit a gradual evolving trend from HCO3− to SO42− and Cl− with increasing nitrate concentration. The correspondence analysis suggested that agricultural activities are identified as the most possible source of nitrate contamination, while the higher content of other parameters in individual groundwater samples may be controlled by natural factors. The impacts of pollutant NO3− on human health were quantified using human health risk assessment method, and results showed that the order of non-carcinogenic health risk values through drinking water intake is Infants>Children>Adult males>Adult females, and 65%, 53%, 41%, and 35% of samples exceed the acceptable risk level (hazard quotient=1), respectively. The main findings obtained from this study can provide valuable insight on drinking water safety and groundwater pollution prevention.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this research are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

This research was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2019YFC1803800), and the project supported by Science Foundation of Hebei Normal University (L2022B38).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geographical Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, 050024, China

    Zijun Li

  2. Hebei Key Laboratory of Environment Change and Ecological Construction, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, 050024, China

    Zijun Li

  3. Hebei Technology Innovation Center for provided in the referenceRemote Sensing Identification of Environmental Change Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, 050024, China

    Zijun Li

  4. Key Laboratory of Groundwater Resources and Environment Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, People’s Republic of China

    Qingchun Yang & Xingyu Lu

  5. Geothermal Institute of Hydrological Engineering Geological Survey, Shijiazhuang, 050000, People’s Republic of China

    Chuan Xie

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  1. Zijun Li
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  4. Xingyu Lu
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Contributions

Zijun Li: methodology, calculation, data curation, visualization, writing-original and funding acquisition. Qingchun Yang: methodology, designing, supervision, editing & review, and funding acquisition. Chuan Xie and Xingyu Lu: data curation, software, formal analysis, editing and revision. The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to editor and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions, which are very helpful for improving this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qingchun Yang.

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Li, Z., Yang, Q., Xie, C. et al. Source identification and health risks of nitrate contamination in shallow groundwater: a case study in Subei Lake basin. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 13660–13670 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23129-y

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