Status and trends of orthophosphate concentrations in groundwater used for public supply in California

Phosphorus is a necessary nutrient for all organisms. However excessive phosphorus can cause eutrophication in surface water. Groundwater can be an important nonpoint contributor of phosphorus to surface water bodies. Most groundwater phosphorus is in the form of orthophosphate and orthophosphate concentrations in California groundwater vary temporally and geographically. This study quantifies orthophosphate concentrations in water samples from public supply wells in California, evaluates temporal trends (both step and monotonic trends) in orthophosphate concentration for different areas of the state, and explores potential explanatory factors for the trends observed. Orthophosphate concentrations are low in 42 percent of the groundwater used for public supply in California, moderate in 43 percent, and high in 15 percent of this groundwater relative to reference conditions and a goal expressed by the USEPA for streams overlying the aquifers. The findings also suggest that orthophosphate concentrations increased in approximately one-third of this groundwater during the study period (2000 to 2018). The timing of orthophosphate increases observed in time-series evaluations coincided approximately with the timing of increases observed in step-trend evaluations, with both suggesting that the increasing trend occurred mostly before 2011. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the statewide dataset indicates that orthophosphate concentrations are antithetically related to dissolved oxygen (DO), and weakly associated with boron, arsenic, and fluoride. Step trend and time-series trend analyses using PCA were inconclusive. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10661-020-08504-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.