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Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California
With the increasing population, urbanization and industry in the arid area of Tecate, there is a concomitant increase in contaminants being introduced into the Tecate River and its aquifer. This contamination is damaging the usable groundwater supply and making local residents and commercial enterpr...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981926/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29710847 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15050887 |
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author | Mahlknecht, Jürgen Daessle, Luis Walter Esteller, Maria Vicenta Torres-Martinez, Juan Antonio Mora, Abrahan |
author_facet | Mahlknecht, Jürgen Daessle, Luis Walter Esteller, Maria Vicenta Torres-Martinez, Juan Antonio Mora, Abrahan |
author_sort | Mahlknecht, Jürgen |
collection | PubMed |
description | With the increasing population, urbanization and industry in the arid area of Tecate, there is a concomitant increase in contaminants being introduced into the Tecate River and its aquifer. This contamination is damaging the usable groundwater supply and making local residents and commercial enterprises increasingly dependent on imported water from the Colorado River basin. In this study we apply a suite of chemical and isotopic tracers in order to evaluate groundwater flow and assess contamination trends. Groundwater recharge occurs through mountain-block and mountain-front recharge at higher elevations of the ranges. Groundwater from the unconfined, alluvial aquifer indicates recent recharge and little evolution. The increase in salinity along the flow path is due to interaction with weathering rock-forming silicate minerals and anthropogenic sources such as urban wastewater, residual solids and agricultural runoff from fertilizers, livestock manure and/or septic tanks and latrines. A spatial analysis shows local differences and the impact of the infiltration of imported waters from the Colorado River basin. The general trend of impaired water quality has scarcely been documented in the last decades, but it is expected to continue. Since the groundwater system is highly vulnerable, it is necessary to protect groundwater sources. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5981926 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59819262018-06-07 Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California Mahlknecht, Jürgen Daessle, Luis Walter Esteller, Maria Vicenta Torres-Martinez, Juan Antonio Mora, Abrahan Int J Environ Res Public Health Article With the increasing population, urbanization and industry in the arid area of Tecate, there is a concomitant increase in contaminants being introduced into the Tecate River and its aquifer. This contamination is damaging the usable groundwater supply and making local residents and commercial enterprises increasingly dependent on imported water from the Colorado River basin. In this study we apply a suite of chemical and isotopic tracers in order to evaluate groundwater flow and assess contamination trends. Groundwater recharge occurs through mountain-block and mountain-front recharge at higher elevations of the ranges. Groundwater from the unconfined, alluvial aquifer indicates recent recharge and little evolution. The increase in salinity along the flow path is due to interaction with weathering rock-forming silicate minerals and anthropogenic sources such as urban wastewater, residual solids and agricultural runoff from fertilizers, livestock manure and/or septic tanks and latrines. A spatial analysis shows local differences and the impact of the infiltration of imported waters from the Colorado River basin. The general trend of impaired water quality has scarcely been documented in the last decades, but it is expected to continue. Since the groundwater system is highly vulnerable, it is necessary to protect groundwater sources. MDPI 2018-04-30 2018-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5981926/ /pubmed/29710847 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15050887 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Mahlknecht, Jürgen Daessle, Luis Walter Esteller, Maria Vicenta Torres-Martinez, Juan Antonio Mora, Abrahan Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California |
title | Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California |
title_full | Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California |
title_fullStr | Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California |
title_full_unstemmed | Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California |
title_short | Groundwater Flow Processes and Human Impact along the Arid US-Mexican Border, Evidenced by Environmental Tracers: The Case of Tecate, Baja California |
title_sort | groundwater flow processes and human impact along the arid us-mexican border, evidenced by environmental tracers: the case of tecate, baja california |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5981926/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29710847 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15050887 |
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