Arsenic pollution in ground waters around yurtbaşi, (Elazığ)

The main objective of this study is to investigate arsenic contaminations in the ground waters of Yurtbaşı, Elazig Turkey. For that, fourth samples were collected in the study area at Jun and October months of 2015and 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 groundwater of Yurtbaşı and its surrounding intensely polluted by the arsenic and some metals. The average and highest concentration of As were found 486 and 15123 ppb, respectively, in the study area. Arsenic levels in 29 ground waters of 40 were observed to have higher levels than in permissible levels (10 ppb) of WHO (2011). It is possible that As pollution in this region was related with the movement of hydrothermal solution in deep fault system or as a result of alteration of sulfate deposits in the deep.