ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The Effects of Large Borate Deposits
on Groundwater Quality
Arzu Çiçek1, Recep Bakiş2, Alper Uğurluoğlu3, Esengül Köse4, Cem Tokatli5
More details
Hide details
1Applied Environmental Research Centre, Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey
2Department of Civil Engineering, Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey
3Institute of Science, Anadolu University,Eskişehir, Turkey
4Department of Environmental Protection and Control, Osmangazi Vocational School,
Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Eskişehir, Turkey
5Department of Laboratory Technology, Ipsala Vocational School, Trakya University,
İpsala/Edirne, Turkey
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2013;22(4):1031-1037
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Seydisuyu Basin, which contains very important agricultural areas and boron deposits of Turkey, is
located in Eskişehir province. In this paper, the groundwater quality of Seydisuyu Basin was evaluated by
using some physiochemical (temperature, conductivity, salinity, and demanded oxygen) and chemical (boron
and arsenic) parameters. Groundwater samples were collected seasonally (2011-12) from 14 wells from the
Seydisuyu Basin and all of the data obtained experimentally were compared with national and international
drinking and usage water standards. Also, cluster analysis (CA) was applied to the results to classify the stations
according to the contents of arsenic and boron levels by using the Past package program, factor analysis
(FA) was applied to the results to classify the affective factors on groundwater quality, and Pearson Correlation
Index was applied to the results to determine the relations of parameters by using the SPSS 17 package program.
According to data, arsenic and boron accumulations of wells were higher than the drinking water limits
specified by the Turkish Standards Institute (TS266), European Communities (EC), and World Health
Organization (WHO) Drinking Water Standards. According to the results of FA, three effective factors that
explain 76.36% of the total variance was detected and arsenic-boron contents of groundwater were positively
loaded with the second factor, named as “Boron Works and Environmental Factor.” According to results of CA
identified by using arsenic and boron accumulations, station 1, which was the closest well to the boron facility,
showed the highest distance and lowest similarity with the other stations.