Svensson, Magnus
- Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
A growing concern over incidents of widespread human exposure to arsenic (As) from groundwater sources has been noticed during the past three decades. Vaasterbotten county in northern Sweden hosts a large number of sulphide ore deposits and a number of gold deposits are recently discovered. Both are accompanied by elevated arsenic contents. Proterozoic metasediments sandwiched in the bedrock and mixed into the till contains elevated amounts of arsenic as well. During the present study about 80 groundwater samples were collected from dug wells, bore-wells and springs in the Skellefte field in Vasterbotten County in northern Sweden. Data from community environmental offices were also collected and included in the study. Arsenic concentrations were elevated in borewells and wetland springs while none of the dug wells had arsenic contents above 10 mg/l. The highest content seen in borewells was 300 mg/l and in wetland springs 100 mg/l. The As(III)/As(tot) varied largely in borewells while it was mostly above 0.8 in wetland springs indicating more reducing contents in the latter. The use of a redox classification indicated that two nechanisms were involved in the mobilisation of he arsenic, oxidation of sulphides and reduction of ferric oxyhydroxides. In some cases the borewells showed a mixed pattern, indicating inflow from different environments.
Published in
Title: Metals and Related Substances in Drinking Water : Proceedings of the 4th International Conference, METEAU
Publisher: IWA Publishing
Conference
4th International Conference on Metals and Related Substances in Drinking Water (METEAU), OCT 13-15, 2010, Kristianstad, SWEDEN
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Sciences
Publication identifier
- ISBN: 978-1-78040-035-8
- eISBN: 978-1-78040-139-3
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/118064