Arsenic pollution in the waters around Gümüşköy (Kütahya) mining area

Arsenic pollution in the waters around Gümüşköy (Kütahya) mining area The main objective of this study is to investigate arsenic contaminations in the waters of Gümüşköy, Kütahya Turkey. For that, twenty-one samples were collected in the study area at Jun and October months of 2017and measured the temperature, pH, and electric conductivity. These waters were analyzed by ICP-MS for As and other cations and by Ion analyzer in Elazig İl Özel Idaresi Laboratory for anions. According the results, water types in the aquifer were identified by using Piper's (1944) trilinear plotting technique and described as Ca bicarbonate water. These results showed that the waters of Gümüşköy and its surrounding intensely polluted by the arsenic and some metals. The average and highest concentration of As were found 301 and 1735 ppb, respectively, in the study area. Arsenic levels in 11 ground waters of 21 were observed to have higher levels than in permissible levels (10 ppb) of WHO. It is possible that As pollution in this region was related with a result of alteration of sulfate deposits in the deep. Key Words: Kütahya, Gümüşköy, arsenic pollution, water,