I.

Please define water quality. What is the main objective of water quality protection? What kind of
self-purification processes can exist in healthy surface water?

- Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological characteristics of water.

- It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species
and or to any human need or purpose.

- It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally
achieved through treatment of the water, can be assessed.

- The most common standards used to assess water quality relate to health of ecosystems, safety of human
contact, and drinking water.

- In the setting of standards, agencies make political and technical/scientific decisions about how the
water will be used

- primary standards regulate substances that potentially affect human health

- secondary standards prescribe aesthetic qualities, those that affect taste, odor, or appearance

- Environmental water quality, also called ambient water quality, relates to water bodies such
as lakes, rivers, and oceans

- The self purification of natural water systems is a complex process that often involves physical,
chemical, and biological processes working simultaneously.

- Self-purification of (running) waters is a set of natural processes that are present in rivers and
streams, enhanced by water turbulence that helps to increase the amount of oxygen to dissolve in the
water.
- Different transversal hydraulic structures (e.g. weirs) or high natural riverbed roughness (torrential
step-pools, boulder streams) increase the turbulent mixing of water and enhance self-purification.
Several tens of kilometers of a river have the same effect as a larger water purificiation plant.
- Factors effecting self purification:
- Dilution: When sufficient dilution water is available in the receiving water body, where the
wastewater is discharged, the DO level in the receiving stream may not reach to zero or critical DO due
to availability of sufficient DO initially in the river water before receiving discharge of wastewater.
- Current: When strong water current is available, the discharged wastewater will be thoroughly mixed
with stream water preventing deposition of solids. In small current, the solid matter from the
wastewater will get deposited at the bed following decomposition and reduction in DO.
- Temperature: The quantity of DO available in stream water is more in cold temperature than in hot
temperature. Also, as the activity of microorganisms is more at the higher temperature, hence, the
self-purification will take less time at hot temperature than in winter.
- Sunlight: Algae produces oxygen in presence of sunlight due to photosynthesis. Therefore, sunlight
helps in purification of stream by adding oxygen through photosynthesis
- Rate of Oxidation: Due to oxidation of organic matter discharged in the river DO depletion occurs.
This rate is faster at higher temperature and low at lower temperature. The rate of oxidation of organic
matter depends on the chemical composition of organic matter.

II.
Please describe advection, dispersion and diffusion processes in groundwater. Please compare the
Fick-law to the Darcy-law. What does the Pecelet number expresses?

- Advection: is mass transport due simply to the flow of the water in which the mass is carried.

- The direction and rate of transport coincide with that of the groundwater flow.

- Diffusion: is the process of mixing that occurs as a result of concentration gradients in porous media.

- Diffusion can occur when there is no hydraulic gradient driving flow and the pore water is static.

- Diffusion in groundwater systems is a very slow process.

- Dispersion: is the process of mechanical mixing that takes place in porous media as a result of the
movement of fluids through the pore space.

- Hydrodynamic dispersion is a term used to include both diffusion and dispersion.

- Diffusion law:

- Darcy’s law for relates fluid flux to hydraulic gradient:

q = -K.grad(h)

- For mass transport, there is a similar law (Fick’s law) relating solute flux to concentration gradient in
a pure liquid:

J = -Dd.grad(C)

where:

J is the chemical mass flux [moles. L-2T-1]

C is concentration [moles.L-3]

Dd is the diffusion coefficient [L2T-1]

- Peclet number

- D/Dd is a convenient ratio that normalizes dispersion coefficients by dividing by the diffusion
coefficient.

- v.dm /Dd is called the Peclet Number (NPE) a dimensionless number that expresses the advective to
diffusive transport ratio.

- For NPE < 0.02 diffusion dominates

- For 0.02 > NPE < 8 diffusion and mechanical dispersion

- For NPE > 8 mechanical dispersion dominates

III.

What are the units of the concentration, the molality and the molarity? Please describe the
contamination attributes. What kind of geophysical methods can be used for contamination plume
delineation?

- Chemical system in groundwater

- Ions, molecules and solid particles

- Reactions can occur that redistribute mass among various ion species or between the solid, liquid and
gas phases.

- solutions

- A solution is a homogeneous mixture where all particles exist as individual molecules or ions.

- Mass per unit volume (g/L, mg/L, mg/L) is the most commonly used scale for concentration

- Mass per unit mass (ppm, ppb, mg/kg, mg/kg) is also widely used

- For dilute solutions, the numbers are the same but in general: mg/kg = mg/L / solution density (kg/L)

- molarity

- Molar concentration (M) defines the number of moles of a species per litre of solution (mol.L-1)

- One mole is the formula weight of a substance expressed in grams.

- example:

- Na2SO4 has a formula weight of 142 g

- A one litre solution containing 14.2 g of Na2SO4 has a molarity of 0.1 M (mol.L-1)

Na2SO4 dissociates in water: Na2SO4 = 2Na+ + SO42-

- Seawater contains roughly 31,000 ppm of NaCl and has a density of 1028 kg.m-3

- What is the molarity of sodium chloride in sea water?

- M = (mc/FW) * r

- Formula weight of NaCl is 58.45

- 31 g is about 0.530 moles

- Seawater molarity = 0.530 * 1.028 = 0.545 M (mol.L-1)

- molality

- Molality (m) defines the number of moles of solute in a kilogram of solvent (mol.kg-1)

- For dilute aqueous solutions at temperatures from around 0 to 40oC, molarity and molality are similar
because one litre of water has a mass of approximately one kilogram.

- example

- Na2SO4 has a formula weight of 142 g

- One kilogram of solution containing 0.0142 kg of Na2SO4 contains 0.9858 kg of water.

- The solution has a molality of 0.101 m (mol.kg-1)

- Na2SO4 dissociates in water: Na2SO4 = 2Na+ + SO42-

- The molal concentrations of Na+ and SO42- are 0.202 m and 0.101 m respectively

- Seawater molality: m = (31/58.45)/ (1- 0.0355) = 0.550 mol.kg-1

- The molarity definition is based on the volume of the solution. This makes molarity a temperature
dependent definition.

- The molality definition does not have a volume in it and so is independent of any temperature
changes.

- The difference is IMPORTANT for concentrated solutions such as brines.

- Contaminations

- Aquifer Pollution Vulnerability: sensitivity to contamination, determined by the natural intrinsic

characteristics of geological strata forming the overlying confining beds or vadose zone of the aquifer
concerned

- Groundwater pollution hazard: probability that groundwater in an aquifer will become polluted to
concentrations above WHO drinking-water guidelines when a given subsurface contaminant load is
generated at the land surface
- Groundwater pollution risk: threat posed by hazard to human health due to pollution of a specific
groundwater supply source, or to an ecosystem, due to pollution of a specific natural aquifer discharge.

- How do aquiers become polluted?

- When contaminant load is inadequately controlled/disposed of.

- exceeds natural attenuation capacity of underlying soils and strata.

- Point (i.e. pipe, ditch) or Non-point sources (i.e. fertilized agricultural lands)

- The specific contaminants leading to pollution in water include a wide spectrum

of chemicals, pathogens, and physical changes such as elevated temperature and discoloration.

- Pathogens

- Disease-causing microorganisms

- coliform bacteria – bacterial indicator of pollution

- others: salmonella, parasitic worms, etc.

- High levels of pathogens may result from on-site sanitation systems (septic tanks, pit latrines) or
inadequately treated sewage discharges

- Organic, inorganic and macroscopic contaminants

- organic:

- detergents

- chloroform

- petroleum hydrocarbons

- insecticides

- volatile organic compounds i.e. solvents

- chlorinated solvents

- drug pollution

- inorganic:

- ammonia

- acidity

- chemical waste

- fertilizers
- heavy metals

- macroscopic:

- trash

- shipwrecks, etc.

- Geophysical methods:

 Surface Resistivity and EM conductivity methods have met with most success.
 Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) has become a useful tool for shallow investigations.
 Magnetometry is very useful to locate buried pipes, metal objects and containers.
 Shallow Seismic survey have met with limited success in true groundwater applicationsand
are relatively high-cost.

IV.

Groundwater global change. Please describe the key problem issues on global scale related to
groundwater resources.

- natural resource

- On a global level, the key issues that need to be addressed to ensure the sustainability of groundwater
resources are the depletion of stored groundwater (dropping water levels) and groundwater pollution.

- climate change

- in areas where climate change is expected to cause water resources to become scarcer than they are
at present, the role of groundwater in water supplies is likely to become more dominant.

- „silent revolution”

- During the twentieth century, groundwater abstraction across the world increased explosively.

- The boom in ground-water development for agricultural irrigation

- Key-issues:

- The silent revolution caused an unprecedented increase in groundwater withdrawal across the globe.

- drastically modifying the hydrogeological regimes of many aquifers, particularly those that are
recharged at a relatively modest rate, or not at all.

- The greatest stress evidently occurs in the more arid parts of the world.

- declining water levels

- The two basic options for controlling the decline of groundwater levels are augmenting the
groundwater resource and restricting its discharge.
- Resource aug-mentation measures are technical in nature and include MAR techniques (artificial
recharge) and land use management.

- protect this water against quality degradation and to prevent poor quality groundwater from entering
active freshwater cycles.

- occurrence of brackish and saline ground- water, which renders the resource unfit for most intended
groundwater uses.

- Anthropogenic groundwater pollution

- many sources of pollution

- large variations in the vulnerability of aquifers, the lack of monitoring data and uncertainties on what
impacts excessive concentrations of pollutants have

- Because groundwater usually moves very slowly, groundwater pollution is almost irreversible, or at
least, very persistent. Consequently, monitoring pollution influxes and preventing them are basic
components of any control strategy.

- In recent years, there is growing attention for micro-pollutants, in particular for pharmaceuticals and
personal care products (PPCPs) and for endocrine disruptive compounds (EDCs)

- Disseminated by sewage, landfills and manure, these substances occur in natural waters in very low
concentrations only (pg to ng per litre range) and are not removed by conventional waste-water
treatment plants.

- In Europe, the most important pollution sources are produced by agriculture and the urban
environment.

- Climate change modifies groundwater recharge.

- decreasing recharge rate (from 12,700 km3 per year to 15,200 km3 per year)

- groundwater recharge is likely to have increased in the northern latitudes, but greatly decreased (by
at least 30% to 70%) in some currently semi-arid zones

- surface water flows

- Wet episodes may become shorter in many regions, while dry periods are expected to become longer.

- Climate change will also modify water demands and water use.

- higher demand

- In relation to groundwater, the main impact of sea level rise is the intrusion of saline water into
coastal aquifers.
- Suddenly occurring natural and man-made disasters – such as floods, droughts, tsunamis, storms,
earthquakes, volcanic events, landslides and armed conflicts

- often cause damage to waterupply systems which results in acute shortages of drinking water.

V.

Please describe the main objectives of river basin management and river basin management plans.
Please describe the idea of the Groundwater Directive. Drinking water regulation in Europe.

- Water Framework Directive

- Citizens, environmental organisations, nature, water-using sectors in the economy all need cleaner
rivers and lakes, groundwater and bathing waters.

- key aims:

- expanding the scope of water protection to all waters, surface waters and groundwater

- achieving "good status" for all waters by a set deadline

- water management based on river basins

- "combined approach" of emission limit values and quality standards

- getting the prices right

- getting the citizen involved more closely

- streamlining legislation

- The best model for a single system of water management is management by river basin - the natural
geographical and hydrological unit - instead of according to administrative or political boundaries.

- surface water

- ecological protection

- chemical protection

- The plan will include all the results of the above analysis: the river basin's characteristics, a review of
the impact of human activity on the status of waters in the basin, estimation of the effect of existing
legislation and the remaining "gap" to meeting these objectives; and a set of measures designed to fill
the gap.

- economic analysis of water use within the river basin must be carried out

- Groundwater directive
- Initial protection focus: drinking water (75% of EU residents depend on gw)

- GW deterioration can directly affect rivers, protected areas

- Slow flows and recovery rates: anthropogenic pressures might last for a long time (decades or more)

- "Hidden resource": pollution prevention, monitoring and restoration can be more difficult than in
surface waters.

- "Daughter" Directive 2006: GWD to clarify criteria for good chemical status and specifications for
reversal of pollution trends + prevent/limit pollutants.

- characterization

- Initial characterisation: all groundwater bodies (GWBs –management units-) location, pressures,
geology, dependent ecosystems within River Basin Districts.

- Further characterization: only GWBs at risk: preparation of a conceptual model

- Impact assessment

- monitoring

- Surveillance monitoring –validate impact assessment and info on trends. 5 core parameters: oxygen
content, pH value, conductivity, nitrate, ammonium

- Operational monitoring –establish chemical status and trend of pollution of GWBs at risk. Minimum
once a year

- list of pollutants:

- nitrates (50mg/l)
- pesticides
- arsenic
- cadmium
- lead
- mercury
- ammonium
- chloride
- sulphate
- phosphorus
- phosphates
- conductivity

- good suface water status (good chemical s. + good ecological s.)

- good groundwater status (good chemical s. + good quantitative s.)
 VI.

The main properties of geothermal fluids. The goethermal potential of the Carpathian basin.

- Basics:

- Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth.

- The geothermal energy of the Earth's crust originates from the original formation of the planet and
from radioactive decay of materials (in currently uncertain but possibly roughly equal proportions).

- The geothermal gradient, which is the difference in temperature between the core of the planet and
its surface, drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the
surface

- Temperatures at the core–mantle boundary may reach over 4000 °C

- Rock and water is heated in the crust, sometimes up to 370 °C

- With water from hot springs, geothermal energy has been used for bathing since Paleolithic times
and for space heating since ancient Roman times, but it is now better known for electricity generation.

- Geothermal power is cost-effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly, but has
historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries

- Geothermal wells release greenhouse gases trapped deep within the earth, but these emissions are
much lower per energy unit than those of fossil fuels.

- Drilling and exploration for deep resources is very expensive.

- LDRs reservoirs

- Geothermal energy comes in either vapor-dominated or liquid-dominated forms

- Enviromental impact:
- Fluids drawn from the deep earth carry a mixture of gases, notably carbon dioxide ,hydrogen-sulfide,
methane and ammonia.

- In addition to dissolved gases, hot water from geothermal sources may hold in solution trace amounts
of toxic elements such as mercury, arsenic, boron, and antimony.

- These chemicals precipitate as the water cools, and can cause environmental damage if released

- Geothermal has minimal land and freshwater requirements

- Chemistry of liquids:

- Geothermal fluids contain a wide variety and concentration of dissolved constituents. The simplest
chemical parameters often quoted to characterize geothermal fluids are:

- TDS (Total dissolved solids)

- pH

- As geothermal fluids move through rocks, they react chemically with the rocks

- Certain minerals in the reservoir rocks may be selectively dissolved by the fluids

- other minerals may be precipitated from solution or certain chemical elements from the fluid may
substitute for certain other elements within a mineral

- Silica and calcium (CaCO3) are the principal minerals usually involved

- Primary geothermal fluids

- Primary geothermal fluids are fluids located at the bottom of a convection cell

- They may be a mixture of two or more fluid components such as meteoric and seawater and
magmatic volatiles

- The main types of primary fluids are Na-Cl waters, acid-sulfate waters and high salinity brines

- Secondary fluids

- In many high-temperature geothermal fields, surface manifestations consist mostly of steam vents
(fumaroles), steam-heated surface water and hot intensely altered ground

- Thermal and non-thermal waters rich in carbonate carbon are widespread on a global scale

- Mixed waters

- In up-flow zones of geothermal systems ascending boiled or un-boiled water may mix with shallow
ground water

- Alternatively, the thermal fluid that mixes with the cooler ground water may be two-phase (liquid
and vapor)

- The corrosive effects of a geothermal fluid on metals depend upon the chemical composition of that
fluid

- scaling

- Calcium carbonate is the most common form of scale deposition attributable to groundwater.

- In Carpathian Basin

- Geothermal community heating: 250 MW capacity (Miskolc 60 MW, Győr 52 MW )

- Geothermal energy in agriculture: 290 MW capacity
- The geothermal potential of the producing medicinal water wells (around 250): 225 MW
- Geothermal power plant capacity: one ongoing EGS project, 0 MWel
- Deep over-pressured flow systems originated from the Pre-Neogene basement

- Superimposed, shallower, gravity-driven flow system

- Less than 10 % of the produced thermal water for energy purposes is injected back into the aquifers

- Our thermal water resources are not endless

- Diverse water chemistry – advantages in balneology

- From hydro exam:

- thermal water: - hotter than 30 °C

- in the Carpathian Basin are connected hydraulically to the strata used for
drinking waters

- in Hungary the geothermal flux is about 90 mW/m 2, where the geothermal

gradient is 30-50 °C/km
- the hot thermal water-bearing Neogene formations are usually
overpressurized – difficult utilization

- geothermal heat reserved near surface 80-100 m (max.200 m) – affected by

climatic effects – temperature changes

- geothermal gradient: the rate of increasing temperature with respect to increasing depth in the
Earth’s interior. (usually 3 °C/100m, in Hungary 5-7 °C/100m)

VII.
Please describe the key issues and relations of groundwater sampling. Major groundwater
sampling site types.

- groundwater sampling

- Determining the availability and quality of groundwater

- The water quality of a groundwater sample collected from a monitoring borehole or well is critically
dependent on 2 factors:

 The length of the screened interval in the borehole.

 The variability in permeability of the adjacent strata.

- Inflows from more permeable strata or fissures will dominate and bias the sample in the borehole
and produce a flow-weighted average sample (FWA)
- This is not a "representative" sample
- There are essentially three methodologies that can be used to sample groundwater from a borehole:

1. Fixed volume purging followed by sampling

2. Low flow sampling
3. Passive Sampling (Zero Purge) methods

- Typically 3 or more times the volume of water in the well lining is pumped from the monitoring
borehole or well prior to sampling using relatively high pumping rates.
- Purge volumes can be reduced by monitoring for chemical stability during pumping

- Fixed volume purging followed by sampling

- good for:
 Inducing inflow from a larger volume of aquifer
 Routine monitoring programmes
 Non specialists
- issues:
 Generates relatively large purge volume for disposal
 High pumping rates can create large drawdown in water level
 High pumping rates can produce non laminar turbid flow, which can impact on some
chemical constituents - particularly volatile organic carbons (VOCs)
 Time and labour intensive

- Low flow sampling

- require pumping rates to be maintained at 0.5 litres per minute or less
- rely on stability monitoring of chemical parameters using flow cells to determine the end point of
purging prior to sampling
- There should be no prior disturbance of the water column before pumping
- Must maintain minimal drawdown of the water column (to minimise pressure changes)
- good for:
  Sampling from short screened monitoring wells
 VOC sampling
 Reducing the volume of purge water for disposal

- issues:
 Use in long screened boreholes (>6m) is questionable
 Time intensive
 Specialist technical knowledge in designing sampling protocols is advisable

- Zero purge methods

- use passive sampling devices to collect samples at discrete depths in the borehole column with
minimal disturbance
- good for:
 Sampling from short screened monitoring wells
 VOC sampling
 Analytical results are generally comparable to low flow methods
 Simple sampling procedure - no purging required.

- issues:
 Use in long screened boreholes (>6m) is questionable
 Specialist technical knowledge in designing sampling protocols is advisable.
 No purge water generated for disposal

VIII.
Karst water quality. The process of karstification. The types of tracers. Please describe the main
idea of vulnerability mapping.

- Karstification:

- Rain picks up CO2 from the atmosphere →Carbonic acid is formed

- Infiltrating water picks up more CO2 from the soil
- Geological discontinuities (bedding planes, joints and faults) → High GW flux → Dissolution
- Solubility decreases in underground voids as water pressure drops → precipitation of carbonate

H2O + CO2 → H2CO3

CaCO3 → Ca2+ + CO32–
CO32– + H2CO3 → 2 HCO3–
CaCO3 + H2CO3→ Ca2+ + 2 HCO3–
- Dissolution:
CaCO(s)3 + H2O(l) + CO(aq)2→ Ca(HCO3)(aq)2

- Precipitation:
Ca(HCO3)(aq)2 → CaCO(s)3 + H2O(l) + CO(aq)2

- Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite,
and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves

- Farming in karst areas must take into account the lack of surface water

- Characteriztics: - Individuality: Although there are many similarities among different karst systems,
every karst system is also a special case and generalisation is
difficult.

- Heterogeneity: The properties of karst aquifers greatly vary in space. There may
be large quantities of water in a cave, but a borehole a few
metres away may be completely dry.

- Anisotropy: The aquifer hydraulic properties depend on the orientation of geologic

fabric elements; for example, the hydraulic conductivity is
typically high in the direction of large fractures and conduits,
but may be low in other directions.

- Duality of recharge: Recharge water may originate from the karst area itself
(autogenic recharge) or from adjacent non-karstic areas
(allogenic recharge).

- Duality of infiltration: Infiltration occurs through the soil and unsaturated zone (diffuse
infiltration), and may also be concentrated via swallow
holes/sinks (point infiltration).

- Duality of porosity and flow: There are two or even three types of porosity in karst
aquifers: intergranular pores in the rock matrix, common
rock discontinuities such as fractures (fissures) and bedding
planes, and solutionally-enlarged voids such as channels and
conduits developed from the initial discontinuities. Whereas
groundwater flow in the matrix and small fissures is typically
slow and laminar, flow in karst conduits (caves) is often fast
and turbulent.

- Variability: The water table in karst aquifers can sometimes fluctuate 10s or even
100s of meters in short periods of time, and karst springs typically show rapid variations of discharge
and water quality
- Tracers
- Tracers injected into sinking streams, and monitored insprings
- Goals:

• Identify underground connections,

• Define spring catchments,
• Localise groundwater divides
• Define the geometry, morphology and hydraulics of the conduit.
• Derivation of hydraulic parameters fo rgroundwater flow and transport models.

- the ideal tracer:

• Stable in the environment

• Does not interact with the aquifer
• Absent from but readily soluble in water
• Easy to detect quantitatively
• Non-toxic
• Invisible
• Inexpensive
• Easy to handle

- Types:

-Natural or environmental tracers (occur without intervention by the investigator):

•Natural substances (e.g. ionic composition, stable isotopes of water),

•Anthropogenic contaminants (e.g. chlorinated organic solvents, road salt, tritium)
•physical properties (e.g. temperature).

Artificial tracers (injectedor induced by the investigator):

• Fluorescent dyes
• Soluble salts
• Radioactive tracers
• Particulate tracers

- Vulnerability mapping
- The main goals of vulnerabilty mapping:

• Protection zoning
• Landuse planning

- GOD, PI, COP: Rating system methods (Ratings linked to ranges of parameters, and summed up to
define vulnerability index)
- DRASTIC, SINTACS, EPIK: Parameter weighting and rating methods (parameter weight sexpress the
contribution of each parameter to the vulnerability)

- All these methods assess a vulnerability index Iv. The range of Iv generally changes for each
method, but in any case Iv increases as the vulnerability increases.

IX.
Drinking water in Hungary. Challanges in drinking water quality. Quality requirements. Problems
related to water distribution. Water safety planning.

- safe vs acceptable
- challanges
- Source water:

• Chemicals of geological origin

• Antropogic pollutants
• Algal toxins
• Antimicrobial resistance
- Water treatment:

• Disinfention by-products
• Nitrite nitrite formation
• Microbiological contamintanion

- Water distribution:

• Microbial regrowth
• Leaching of heavy metals
• Nitrite formation

- drinking water quality regulation

- Eu regulation
- General provisions:

• Water should be clean and wholesome

• Water quality should be regularly monitored at the tap

• If some parameter is over the limit value, action should be taken

• Water quality data should be collected on a national level

• Reported to the EU and made available to public

- quality requirements:

 Microbiology: E. coli and Enterococci
 Chemicals:
 Nitrate, nitrite
 Heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb)
 Micropollutants (As, B, F, cianide)
 Organic micropollutants (PAH, TCE, benzene, halogened hydrocarbons)
 Pesticides
 Disinfection by-products (THM, bromate -also chlorite and combined chlorine in Hungary)
These are the elements of known health effects

- indicators:

 Organoleptic properties: taste, odour, colour, turbidity
 Microbiology: colony count, coliforms, Clostridium, Pseudomonas aeruginosa
 Physico-chemical properties: pH, conductivity, oxidisability
 Ions: sulphate, chloride, ammonium, iron, manganese
 Radioactivity
 Altogether more than 60 parameters

These are indicators, showing changes/failures in the system. Cause and potential health effect
should be investigated, action taken if needed
- quality monitoring:

 Self-check samples by the water supply operators 90 %

 Official samples (public health authority) 10 %
 Designated monitoring points (mostly public wells or public buildings)
 Accredited laboratories (private or state labs)
 Sanitary inspections every year by the public health office
 Data reporting: every 3 months
 Collected at a national level
 Reported to the EU every 3 years

- drinking water supply in Hungary

 X.

Determination of macro elements (Ca, Mg, Na, K) and micro elements (Fe, Mn, etc.).

- major constituents (>5 mg/L)

- calcium

- magnesium

- sulphate

- chloride

- sodium

- bicarbonate

- silicon

- carbonic-acid

- pH, alkanity, conductivity, TDS, total hardness

- minor constituents (0.01 < x < 10 mg/L)

- potassium

- iron

- ammonium

- carbonate

- fluoride

- bromide

- nitrate/nitrite

- carbon-dioxyde

- oxigen

- boron

- strontium

- routine analysis

- A “routine” analysis usually includes all the major constituents (except carbonic acid).

- All the minor constituents (except B and Sr that tend to be regarded as trace consituents) are also to
be expected.
- Additional specialized measurements are sometimes required for specific projects

 trace metals
 nutrients (mainly N and P species)
 organics (mainly hydrocarbons, chlorinated hc’s)
 stable isotopes (14C, 18O, 2H, etc.)
 radionuclides (226Ra, 207Pb, 208Po, 231Th, etc.)

- There are a large number of plots used to visualize ion abundances:

 Pie Chart

 Collins Diagram (Bar Chart)

 Stiff Diagram

- Other plots are use to group waters and interpret their origins:
 Piper Diagram

 Fence Diagram

- Facies mapping

- Spatial mapping groundwater facies based on classification on the Piper Diagram can help in the
visualization of progressive changes in chemistry

XI.

Determination method of the main anions (bicarbonate, chloride, sulfate)

- chemical reactions

- A wide variety of chemical reactions can take place between gases, solutes and solids in groundwater
systems:

 Acid-base

 Solution-precipitation

 Complexation

 Redox

 Hydrolysis

 Isotopic processes
- pH

- pH is controlled by acid-base reactions

- pH = - log[H+]

- acids and bases

-
• An acid is a substance with a tendency to lose protons

• A base is a substance with a tendency to gain protons.

• Acids react with bases to transfer protons

• In acid-base reactions, because no free protons are produced, there must be two acid-base systems
involved:
Acid1 + Base1 = Acid2 + Base2

- bicarbonate reaction

HCO3- + H2O = H3O+ + CO32-

• A proton is transferred (donated) from the bicarbonate ion to the water molecule to create an
hydrogen ion.

K = [H3O+ ] [CO32-] = [H+ ] [CO32-]

[HCO3- ] [H2O] [HCO3- ]

assuming the activity of water is unity and abandoning our “hydrogen ion” distinction.

• Remember the reaction is nevertheless an acid-base reaction with water as a base:

HCO3- = H+ + CO32-

- As an approximation, the simple ionic chlorides (sodium and magnesium chloride) just dissolve in
water.

- The other chlorides all react with water in a variety of ways described below for each individual
chloride. The reaction with water is known as hydrolysis.

- The hydrolysis of water is the separation of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms (water
splitting) using electricity (electrolysis).

- Sulfate (SO4) can be found in almost all natural water. The origin of most sulfate compounds is the
oxidation of sulfite ores, the presence of shales, or the industrial wastes

- Sulfate is one of the major dissolved components of rain

- Some soils and rocks contain sulfate minerals. As groundwater moves through these, some of the
sulfate is dissolved into the water.
- There are three types of treatment systems that will remove sulfate from your drinking water:
reverse osmosis, distillation, or ion exchang
 XII.

Field investigations, electrochemical measurements (pH, Eh (ORP), EC, TDS, DO)

- pH

- hydrogen ion activity

- [H+] represents the activity of hydrogen ions in solution:

- pH = - log[H+] = -log[H3O+]

- since hydrogen ions exist in solution in the hydrated form as H 3O+

- this allows us to distinguish between hydrogen ions and protons

- pH is a “master variable” controlling chemical systems.

- pH is controlled by acid-base reactions.

- specific conductance (EC)

- Solids and liquids that dissolved in water are divided into electroytes (salts, bases and acids) and
nonelectroytes (sugar, alcohol)

- Positively and negatively charged ions conduct electrical current

- Definition: the ability of one cubic centimeter of water to conduct electrical current is called specific
conductance

- Units: mS/cm, µS/cm

- Total dissolved solids (TDS)

- Derived from EC

- Preliminary estimation, in milligrams per liter, the specific conductance in microsimens /cm can be
multiplied by 0.7

- Pure water: 0,055 µS/cm

- POTABLE WATER: FROM 30 to 2000 µS/cm

- SEA WATER: FROM 45000 TO 55000 µS/cm

- Dissolved Oxygen (DO)

- The ratio of Oxygen and nitrogen in water (10:18)

- Oxygen in water has an important impact on aquatic animals and plants

- DO depends on air pressure, temperature, salinity, type of contamination

- Unit: mg/l, saturation %

- When the saturation of DO is not 100% on the investigated temperature, it means oxygen
consumption in the water

- E.g.: 3 mg/liter organic carbon content Consume 9 mg/liter oxygen of water, it means one drop of
oil consume oxygen from 5 liter water

- Reduction-oxidation potential (EH)

- Reduction and oxidation can be broadly defined as gain of electrons and loss of electrons
- Oxidizing agent is many material that gains electron and a reducing agent is any materials that loses
electron
𝐸ℎ
𝑝𝐸 = (Eh in millivolts)
59.16

- EH CHANGE BETWEEN +700 AND -400 mV

- Postive sign indicates that the system is oxidizing and negative that the system is reducing

XIII.

Plotting chemical compositions

- There are a large number of plots used to visualize ion abundances:

 Pie Chart
 Collins Diagram (Bar Chart)
 Stiff Diagram

- Other plots are use to group waters and interpret their origins:

 Piper Diagram
 Fence Diagram
- Facies mapping

- Spatial mapping groundwater facies based on classification on the Piper Diagram can help in the
visualization of progressive changes in chemistry.
- A fence diagram is a convenient method of viewing a 3D region as a series of intersecting cross-
sections.
 XIV.

Relationship between water quality ( C ) and river discharge (Q). Please define these possible 2
river models.

- órai lapon-

XV.

Please give the Steerer and Phelps equation. How can you regulate the water quality along the
river with the help of the purification?

- The Streeter–Phelps equation is used in the study of water pollution as a water quality
modelling tool.

- The model describes how dissolved oxygen (DO) decreases in a river or stream along a certain
distance by degradation of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD).

- 1925, based on field data from the Ohio River

- The Streeter–Phelps equation determines the relation between the dissolved oxygen concentration
and the biological oxygen demand over time and is a solution to the linear first order differential
equation

- D: saturation deficit [g/m3]

- k1: deoxygenation rate

- Lt: oxygen demand remaining at time t

- k2: reaeration rate

-t: time

- La: is the initial oxygen demand of organic matter in the water

- assuming that the system is steady-state:

XVI.

What is the main obijective of the drinking water quality improving program? Give some case
studies concerning the matter.

- Protection measures:

 Proper well construction can significantly improve water quality

 Well location upstream/away from pit latrines, waste dumps and cemeteries
 Concrete platforms around well with proper drainage
 Animals must be kept away by a fence

- Strategies to improve pollution situation in Peri-urban areas:

 Connection to public water supply (piped water system)

 Connection to sewerage system
 No realistic short term solution (high investment costs)
- Land-use activities commonly responsible for groundwater pollution in the Urban areas

- Groundwater Protection Common approach worldwide:

- Protection of water resources by Groundwater Protection Zones (GPZ) – to be discussed in detail

later General aim:
- To Protect drinking water resources in the groundwater contribution zone, upstream of a
well/spring, from pollution.

Its General aim:

 To protect drinking water resources in the groundwater contribution zone upstream of the
well/spring from pollution.

Common approach worldwide involves:

 Protection of water resources by employing Groundwater Protection Zones (GPZ)

 Zone I – Immediate Protection Zone
 Zone II – Inner Protection Zone
 Zone III – Outer Protection Zone

Groundwater Protection Zones:

 need regulatory embedding

 need public awareness
 need Monitoring
 usually imply landuse restrictions to balance competing user-interests.

Rural water supply:

- Currently 53 % of Africa‘s rural population is without access to safe water (AfDB 2009)

- „Safe drinking water“ is predominantly from hand-dug-wells and drilled wells with hand pumps

- Frequent reports in literature indicate elevated nitrate levels and bacterial contamination