A GRAPHIC EXPRESSION OF SALINIZATION AND POLLUTION OF GROUNDWATER - THE CASE OF ISRAELS GROUNDWATER

Anthropogenic activities create various contaminated leachate, which c an migrate downward from the vadose zone to groundwater, transferring contaminants, including some hazardous ones. When these various source s of contamination influence the groundwater aquifer simultaneously, t he effects of contamination are enhanced. The major concern of this st udy has been to determine whether the shape of a groundwater chlorogra ph might be the result of such deterministic effects as accumulation o f one or more particular processes of groundwater contamination, and h ow this might relate to specific hydrological situations. This study p roposes a classification of groundwater contamination on the basis of properties of the main components of groundwater quality graphs and th e corresponding hydrogeological/environmental situation. The study fur ther suggests that contamination of groundwater in any hydrogeological situation (e.g. sea water) may be graphically expressed. A variety of chlorographs and nitrographs, representative of various groundwater a quifers sampled from a number of wells throughout Israel attest to thi s. The study thus indicates that groundwater quality graphs may be con sidered as a complementary tool for groundwater quality control and be tter understanding aquifer situations.