EGU2020-2854
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2854
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Tracing the sources of pollutants in Ganga river water using conventional and non-conventional isotope analysis in nitrates

Abhayanand Singh Maurya
Abhayanand Singh Maurya
  • Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Earth Sciences, Roorkee, India (abhayfes@iitr.ac.in)

Tracing the sources of pollutants in Ganga river water using conventional and non-conventional isotope analysis in nitrates

 

Abhayanand S. Maurya1, Amzad H. Laskar2, Nityanand S. Maurya3, Mao-Chang Liang4,

 

1Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee-247667, Uttarakhand, India

2Geosciences Division, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380009, Gujarat, India

3Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Patna, India

4Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

 

Ganga is the largest river in India providing fresh water to ~40 % of India’s population which is more than any other river in the world. It is also one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Pollution, mainly from human and industrial wastes in the Ganga poses significant threats to human health and environment. This is an attempt to identify and quantify the contribution of different sources in the river water pollution using stable isotopes in nitrate (NO3-). We measured non-conventional triple oxygen isotopes (∆17ONO317ONO3-λδ18ONO3) along with the conventional isotopes (δ15N and δ18O) in NO3- and concentrations of major ions and metals (both heavy and trace ones) in Ganga river water to understand the sources and contribution from different pollution sectors. We also measured stable water isotopes (δD and δ18O) to understand the secondary processes such as in stream evaporation and inflow over the course of the river.  Water samples were collected from multiple locations starting from the clean water in the upstream region to all the way to the estuaries before the onset of monsoon, to best capture anthropogenic signals. ∆17O in NO3- is used to partition the atmospheric depositions from other sources such as human and industrial wastes and δ15N and δ18O values are used to partition the contribution of pollutants from different land sources such as municipal wastes and agricultural fertilizers. ∆17O in NO3- is also used to understand reaction processes which affect the isotopic composition such as nitrification, denitrification, volatilization, assimilation and mineralization as those processes mostly follow mass dependent fractionation without affecting ∆17O but influence the conventional isotopic compositions. We will present the results along with some recommendations for reducing the pollution level of the Ganga water.

 

How to cite: Maurya, A. S.: Tracing the sources of pollutants in Ganga river water using conventional and non-conventional isotope analysis in nitrates, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2854, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2854, 2020