Monitoring of groundwater quality in the Norwegian-Finnish border area with Russia (Status Report 2004).

Abstract

The main activity during 2004 has been collection and analysis of 30 groundwater and 3 snow samples from the three monitoring stations located at Karpdalen, Svanvik and Skjellbekken. All samples were analysed for cation concentration by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES: Si, Fe, Ti, Mg, Ca, Na, Ba, Sr, Sc), heavy metals and trace elements by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS: Y, Nb, Ag, In, Sb, Cs, Nd, Sm, Ho, Yb, Ta, W, Tl, Bi, Th, V, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ga, Ge, Li, Be, B, Rb, Zr, Mo, Cd, La, Ce, Pb, U, Al, Cr, Co, Ni, P, I, K, As, Se), anions by ion chromatography (IC: F, Ci, Br, NO3, NO2, PO4, SO4), alkalinity, pH, electrical conductivity, colour and turbidity. All elements show slight variations in concentration with time. A comparison of groundwater content of 7 toxic heavy metals with background data from the Nellim station in Finland shows that all elements are below or equal to background values except for Cu at Svanvik and As at all 3 stations. However all 7 heavy metals concentrations in groundwater are well below the Norwegian drinking water standard values. There are noe indications of contamination of groundwater at the three stations so far. However surface media are contaminated, likely by emissions from the Nickel smelters, as shown by higher concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb in snow compared with groundwater.