Scholarly record

ANTHROPOGENIC IMPACT ON GROUNDWATER QUALITY IN NORTH-WEST BANAT-S PLAIN, ROMANIA

Lecturer PhD. Laura Smuleac, Assoc. Prof. Anisoara Ienciu, Lecturer PhD. Radu Bertici, Lecturer PhD. Adrian Smuleac, Assist. Prof. PhD. Dicu Daniel

Abstract

Promoting sustainable use of groundwater based on reducing pollution and on preventing later pollution is a basic desideratum of the Water Law No. 107/1996 with later additions and alterations and of the Directive 60/2000/EC in the field of water issued by the European Parliament. Water resources are a source of normal economic development: they ensure nature balance and life continuity and this is why we need to rationally use them during both normal and crisis periods (e.g., drought). Ground waters are an ecological and economic asset and a strategic resource: the measures to be taken in this domain aim at using them properly while maintaining their natural quality. Strategies to do so need to be flexible to meet effectively the changes in water use, the new legal, socio-economic or technical conditions, as well as strict requirements regarding the environment and public awareness, all this in accordance with new scientific knowledge. We also need to promote and support integrated management paying attention to both the quantity and quality of ground waters and taking into account the features of ground water that require special protection measures of aquifers. In order to monitor and prevent pollution, we sampled water from two drills close to SпїЅnnicolau Mare, a town located in the north-west of the Western Plain in the Aranca River Basin, Romania. The river basin of this system overlaps old parasitic water courses of the River Mures (Holocene) that were flooded before being diked. The Aranca River complex is still under the influence of high waters of the River Mures, but the link between the two is underground. The levels of the ground waters in the high plain reach 1-5 m, depending on the micro relief. Ground waters have a low mineral content: they are generally little savourless with predominating dicarbonatic and calcic ions. Ground waters levels vary little, but the recent years have seen a slight descending trend. Water sampling was done in April 2015 and October 2016. The main quality indices we measured were nitrate and nitrite content, calcium and magnesium content, chlorides, iron content, manganese content, water conductivity, calcium content, ammonia content, potassium content, and water hardness. Analyses were conducted according to the current methodology and results were interpreted and compared with the main physical and chemical quality indices stipulated by Law No. 311 from June 2004 altering and completing Law No. 458 from 2002 regarding drinking water quality. We could thus reach the conclusion that water has a slight basic character, that nutrient content was slightly higher reaching exceptional admitted limit, that the content in magnesium, potassium and chloride was low and that the content in iron and manganese was slightly higher (characteristic for the Western Plain). This is why we recommend, for a better nutrient management, the enforcement of the Directive 91/676/CEE and ofement with the Directive of Nit

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