The Role of Leaky Boreholes in the Contamination of a Regional Confined Aquifer. A case Study: The Campo de Cartagena Region, Spain

Poorly constructed wells (leaky or without a gravel pack) and abandoned wells can behave as conduits for the interconnection of aquifers at different depths and facilitate the transfer of contaminants between these aquifers. This is the case with Campo de Cartagena (SE Spain) where the primary land use is intensive irrigated agriculture, along with a high density of wells. The unconfined aquifer is heavily impacted by a high concentration of nitrate associated with agricultural activities. The present work provides a methodological approach to evaluate the impact of the unconfined aquifer on the water quality of the confined aquifer caused by leaky wells in highdensity areas of production wells. The research approach included the use of geochemical and isotopic tools; specifically, nitrate was used as a tracer for evaluating the impact, and the code MIX_PROGRAM was used for mixing calculations. Results show an increase of the impact of the unconfined aquifer on the confined aquifer along the groundwater flow direction toward the coast, although this general pattern is controlled by local factors (pumping, intensity of agricultural practices, density of wells, and groundwater residence time).

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Jiménez Martínez J. Aravena R. y Candela L. The Role of Leaky Boreholes in the Contamination of a Regional Confined Aquifer. A case Study: The Campo de Cartagena Region Spain. Springer Nature, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-010-0480-3

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Resource type Article
Date of creation 2024-11-05
Date of last revision 2025-01-22
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Metadata identifier 756cb9a4-f56d-5793-9a65-282c3161c51a
Metadata language Spanish
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High-value dataset category Earth observation and environment
ISO 19115 topic category biota
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Name of the dataset creator Jiménez Martínez, J., Aravena, R. y Candela, L.
Name of the dataset editor Springer Nature
Other identifier DOI: 10.1007/s11270-010-0480-3
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Email of the dataset creator joaquin.jimenez@upc.edu
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