Scientific Papers Series : Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and Rural Development (Jun 2014)
GROUNDWATER QUALITY AND ITS SUITABILITY FOR DRINKING AND AGRICULTURAL USE IN A RURAL AREA FROM CLUJ COUNTY (FLORESTI VILLAGE)
Abstract
In the present study, a hydrochemical investigation was conducted in a rural area from Cluj County, Romania, inorder to determine the chemical composition of groundwater and to evaluate if the investigated water sources canbe used for drinking or agriculture purposes. Several groundwater samples were collected from fifteen wells inorder to analyze the major dissolved ions (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, F-, Cl-, Br-, NO2-, NO3-, PO43- and SO42-). Theanalyzed waters proved to have a low level of sodium (0.27 - 41.87 mg/l), magnesium (0.11 – 25.17 mg/l), calcium(0.59 – 117.30 mg/l), chloride (3.33 – 97.68 mg/l) and sulphate (4.42 – 132.80 mg/l), and a high level of potassium(0.22 – 22.59 mg/l), nitrites (detected only in one sample - 1.36 mg/l), nitrate (6.58 – 92.96 mg/l), fluoride (0.24 –1.40 mg/l) and phosphate (12.44 –18.26 mg/l). The possibility of using these waters for agricultural purposes hasbeen assessed by calculating the sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). The results of the present study indicate that theuse for agricultural purposes of some of the analyzed groundwater represent no threat for vegetation, as the SARlevel was lower than 3.0.
