Assessment of seasonal variation in groundwater quality at coconut husk retting area kanyakumari district

Abstract

The groundwater quality management is one of the major environmental challenges. Monitoring pollutant from the different sources to the groundwater is quite a difficult and laborious which sometimes leads to analytical errors also. The main objective of the present study is to find out the seasonal variations and model developments of the groundwater quality of the coconut husk retting area of Mondaikadu which is in Kanyakumari District. Physico-chemistry of the groundwater in the study area has been used to assess the quality of the groundwater to determine its suitability for drinking purposes. The physical chemical parameters such as TDS, EC, pH, Hardness, Mg, Ca, Mn, Na, K, HCO3, CO3, Cl, SO4 and NO3 have been analysed in the Environmental Engineering laboratory. The seasonal variations of the water quality among the three seasons, namely summer, winter and monsoon seasons are estimated. The result shows that the concentration of the water quality parameters is higher in the monsoon season, next high is the winter season, and the lowest concentration is in the summer season. The general statistical analysis study of mean, median and standard deviations are analysed and the result are compared with the WHO and BIS standards, which is the first phase of the study. From the comparison, it is observed that all the parameters are within the limits, except the pH. The pH of the water is less than the prescribed value, so that the type of water is acidic in this place. To neutralize the pH, addition of soda ash, addition of sodium hydroxide and aeration methods are adopted. From the experimental study, it is concluded that these three methods act as good pH neutralizing agents. newline