Assessment of hydrogeochemistry and environmental isotopes of surface and groundwaters in the Kütahya Plain, Turkey

- Geochemical process in the area that influences the chemical composition of the water sources is due to the dissolution of carbonate minerals.
- The current study shows that natural and anthropogenic processes contributed to the presence of some chemical parameters in high levels in the groundwaters of Kütahya plain.
- The positive correlation between K+- NO3−, K+- NO2−, Mg2+-SO42- ions could result from the usage of excess amount of fertilizers during agricultural practices.
- Surface waters show more positive δ2H and δ18O values than the groundwaters revealing evaporation effect on surface waters.

The aim of the present work is to determine the geochemical processes that control the nature of the groundwater and assess the quality of water for drinking and public health purposes. Surface and groundwater samples of Kütahya plain were analyzed for their physio-chemical and environmental isotope properties. The relative concentrations of the water ions were found to occur in the order of Ca2+>Mg2+>(K+ + Na+) and HCO3−>SO42->Cl−. Piper diagram shows that Ca-Mg/Mg-Ca-HCO3 was the dominant water types. Waters in the area were super-saturated with respect to carbonates. However, they were under-saturated with respect to sulphate minerals. The groundwaters had a mean isotopic composition of −67.32 δ2H and −9.72 δ18O and were comparatively lower than surface waters −64.64 δ2H and −9.25 δ18O. Tritium activities in groundwater from the wells ranged from 1.00 to 8.38 TU with a mean value of 4.37 TU. The impact of agricultural practices and poor sanitation conditions is indicated by the positive correlation between K+ - NO3−, K+- NO2− and HCO3− - Cl− ions as well as Na+ and Mg2+ ions with SO42−ion. The groundwater quality of Kütahya plain is influenced by various natural and anthropogenic factors.