Contamination Assessment and Temporal Evolution of Nitrates in the Shallow Aquifer of the Metauro River Plain (Adriatic Sea, Italy) after Remediation Actions

Marco Taussi (), Caterina Gozzi, Orlando Vaselli, Jacopo Cabassi, Matia Menichini, Marco Doveri, Marco Romei, Alfredo Ferretti, Alma Gambioli and Barbara Nisi
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Marco Taussi: Dipartimento di Scienze Pure e Applicate, Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Via Ca’ Le Suore 2/4, 61029 Urbino, Italy
Caterina Gozzi: Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze, Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy
Orlando Vaselli: Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze, Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy
Jacopo Cabassi: CNR-IGG Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy
Matia Menichini: CNR-IGG Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Marco Doveri: CNR-IGG Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. Moruzzi 1, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Marco Romei: ASET SpA, Via Luigi Einaudi 1, 61032 Fano, Italy
Alfredo Ferretti: ASET SpA, Via Luigi Einaudi 1, 61032 Fano, Italy
Alma Gambioli: ASET SpA, Via Luigi Einaudi 1, 61032 Fano, Italy
Barbara Nisi: CNR-IGG Istituto di Geoscienze e Georisorse, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Via G. La Pira 4, 50121 Firenze, Italy

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-24

Abstract: Over the last decades, groundwater resources at global level have suffered a significant deterioration due to nitrate pollution, mainly related to the input of agricultural fertilizers, manure, sewage, and untreated urban and industrial effluents. The most impacted waters are those forming surface and shallow reservoirs, which usually play a key role in supplying waters to civil, agricultural, and industrial activities. The terminal portion of the Metauro River plain, located in central Italy along the Adriatic Sea coastline, hosts a strategic phreatic aquifer that, along with the surface water of the Metauro River, supplies water to the local population (i.e., about 60,000 people). This shallow coastal aquifer experiences a long-lasting story of nitrate contamination since the 1970s when the increase in the use of agricultural fertilizers contributed to very high levels of pollution (NO 3 − > 100 mg/L). This fact prompted the local authorities to carry out remediation actions that involve a pumping system to inject the NO 3 − -poor waters from the Metauro River course directly into the shallow aquifer. The present work was aimed at defining the contamination of nitrates in this important water resource. The main geochemical characteristics and the temporal evolution of NO 3 − concentrations (between 2009 and 2020), in the shallow coastal aquifer of the Metauro River plain, were analyzed by means of classical geochemical analyses and multivariate methods accounting for the compositional nature of the data, to assess the efficiency of the in-situ remediation over time.

Keywords: nitrate pollution; nitrate time series analysis; groundwater; hydro-geochemistry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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