Assignment #10: Water chemistry (20 pts or 2% of your total grade)

Assignment:
You have been asked to evaluate the water chemistry of a monitoring well that penetrates a confined aquifer. This evaluation is
necessary to examine the potential placement of a new water supply well. Below are the physiochemical parameters and solute
concentrations available to you (Tables 1 and 2). This type of water chemistry check is typical of a water quality screening to
establish the chemical environment of the solution. For a water supply well, the chemical environment represents the solute
and solution dynamics that can interfere with drawing water into wells (screen mineral buildup and clogging), system fouling
(corrosion and mineral precipitation), and treatment requirements to meet required State and Federal safe drinking water
standards. I have simplified the data set to focus only on the physiochemical and major inorganic ion parameters. These
parameters allow you to evaluate the acid-base and redox environments and buffering capacity of the water.
Table 1: physiochemical parameters of water sample collected from the monitoring well.
Physiochemical parameter

Value

pH

8.2

TDS (mg/L)

603.5

Eh (mv)

400

Alkalinity (mg/L of CaCO3

species)

325

Table 2: Solute concentrations in water sample collected from the monitoring well.
Solute

Concentration Atomic
(mg/L)
wt. (g)

Molarity Valence
(mmol/L) (charge)

Milliequivalents
per liter (meq/L)

Ca

92.0

40.078

2.29

2+

4.58

Mg

34.0

24.305

1.39

2+

2.78

Na

8.2

22.98

.356

1+

.356

1.4

39.0983

.0358

1+

.0358

Fe (III)

0.1

55.845

.00179

3+

.00537

HCO3

112.24

61.013

1.83

1-

4.59

SO4

84.0

96.063

.87443

2-

1.7488

Cl

9.6

35.453

.27078

1-

.27078

62.0049

.20966

1-

.20966

NO3 (as N) 13.0

Questions: Show all work

1) What are the concentrations of H+ and OH- given the pH (4 pts)?Show as a base 10 format. Remember that the pH scale is a
concentration scale of hydrogen in these two forms. The concentration ranges from 0 to 14, which has an equivalent
representation as actual concentrations of the two forms that balance across the scale according to the exponent of the base
! = 10!!" [ ! ]
10!!" /10!!.! =1.58 x 10-6
10!!"# = 10-14-10-PH = 10!!" 10!!.! =

2) Given the pH and alkalinity values, what is the concentration of HCO3 (4 pts)? Assume negligible species do not contribute
to the concentration. We commonly default to the bicarbonate ion (HCO3-) for near-neutral to neutral waters when we want to
examine the major ions together. Typically, we do not ask the lab to analysis for the carbonate species (CO3, HCO3, H2CO3)
but determine an overall alkalinity of the water through an acid titration. Unfortunately, an old form of the titration output

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persists, and most titration kits will provide you with a unit value in mg/L of CaCO3. Examine the relation of bicarbonate
alkalinity as HCO3 and CaCO3 below to provide me the alkalinity as HCO3. Although, you must first tell me why it would be
appropriate to make this conversion to a single carbonate species.
Consider the following reaction:
CaCO3 + H2O + CO2 Ca(HCO3)2
CaCO3 has a molecular weight of 100 g/mol and HCO3- anion has a molecular weight of 61 g/mol
Each mole of Ca(HCO3)2 corresponds to one mole of CaCO3 (100 g) and contains 2 x 61 g = 122 g of HCO3Therefore, bicarbonate alkalinity as HCO3- (mg/L) = 1.22*bicarbonate alkalinity as CaCO3 (mg/L)
1mole CaCO3= 2moles HCO3
2.3 mole CaCO3 x2=4.6 mole HCO3
4.6 x 61.023= 280 mg/L
At a PH of 8.2 HCO3 is the single carbonate species that exists

3) What is the percent balance of your major ions and is it a good balance (4 pts)? A good balance is <5%. You will need to
fill in table 2, and divide the charge difference of the two major ion groups by their charge sum. Do not forget your nitrogen
form. Commonly, you would not need to consider nitrate for charge balance, but in those environments where you have large
nutrient concentrations, an ion such as NO3 will contribute significantly to your charge balance. In such instances, if we did not
include the nitrate, we would end up a poor charge balance, which would indicate that we are missing a solute concentration.

Cations=7.781
Anions= 7.535
7.781-7.535/7.181+7.535= .015%
There is a good balance.

4) The steel well casing of the monitoring well has had issues with plugging because of iron deposits. You have very little
Fe(III) in your solution. Given the Eh and pH, what form and phase (solid or aqueous and species) of Fe would you expect to
find in this environment (4 pts)? You will need to examine an Fe pH-Eh diagram. Such diagrams have detailed boundaries (not
always true) for the aqueous- or solid-phase form and species/phase of an element under the different pH-Eh environments.
The diagrams can be a bit misleading because it typically implies only one form or phase of an element/species under certain
conditions, which is unlikely. Think of the form/phases as the greater probability
of that form being present under those conditions. Explain how you determined
the predominant form/phase of Fe in this environment.

Fe(OH)3
Goethite Fe(OH)2 is a solid in this environment
Because Fe(OH)3 with the addition of water is equal to Fe(OH)2

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5) What is the water type of the sample collected from the monitoring well and what does it say about your aquifer matrix (4
pts)? Water type is a common description of water samples used to quickly describe the major ion dominance or what are the
common ions in your water. To answer this question, I would like you to construct a Piper diagram using your solute data.
Download and install GW_Chart from the USGS (link below). This is freeware that contains some common hydrology data
presentation capabilities. If you click on Chart Type, you will see the Piper option. Enter the appropriate solute
concentrations in the data table and check the appropriate data type (concentrations). Go to the plot window and you will see a
couple of ternary diagrams with a middle diamond plot. This is a standard Piper diagram, which quickly indicates your
dominant ions and your water type. The default is a non-gridded format that is a bit difficult to interpret. Go to the Format
Chart tab and select Grid Lines at 20%. Export this image (tab at the bottom) and insert the plot into your results. To determine
the water type, you need to view the placement of the data indicator in the cation ternary and anion ternary plots within the
Piper diagram. The arrows indicate an increase in the presence of the ion and the grids will help you understand the ternary
interaction of the three scales. Your data will plot towards a dominant cation and anion ion (can be two cations or anions if they
have nearly equal presence in the water). The water type is the description of one or two dominant cations and one or two
dominant anions. If you water was from a calcite aquifer, you would end up with a calcium-carbonate water type. If you had a
sulfide-rich mineral environment, you might end up with a magnesium-sulfate water type. If you had a lot of halite in your
system, you would quickly notice the sodium-chloride water type.
I couldnt figure out how to get the diagram to work on the USGS website.

http://water.usgs.gov/nrp/gwsoftware/GW_Chart/GW_Chart.html

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