Concentrations and Distributions of 5 Metals in Groundwater Based on Geological Features in South Korea

To establish new metal groundwater standard, 5 metals such as aluminum, chromium, iron, manganese, and selenium were evaluated by Chemical Ranking Of groundWater pollutaNts (CROWN) including possibility of exposure, toxicity, interest factor, connection standard for other media, and data reliability. 430 groundwater samples in 2013 and 2014 were collected semiannually from 110 groundwater wells and they were analyzed for selenium, manganese, iron, chromium, and aluminum. For this study, 430 groundwater samples were categorized into 3 geological distribution features, such as igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rock region and geological background levels were divided by pre-selection methods. For the results, the average concentrations of aluminum, chromium, iron, manganese, and selenium in 430 groundwater samples were $0.0008mg\;L^{-1}$, $0.0001mg\;L^{-1}$, $0.174mg\;L^{-1}$, $0.083mg\;L^{-1}$, and $0.0004mg\;L^{-1}$, respectively. In addition, among various geologies, average concentration of selenium was the highest in igneous rock region, average concentrations of chromium, manganese and aluminum were the greatest in sedimentary rock region, and average concentration of iron was the most high in metamorphic rock region. As a result of the geological background concentration with pre-selection method, background concentrations of selenium and aluminum in groundwater samples were the highest from sedimentary rock as $0.0010mg\;L^{-1}$ and $0.0029mg\;L^{-1}$ and background concentrations of manganese and iron in groundwater samples were the greatest from metamorphic rock as $0.460mg\;L^{-1}$ and $1.574mg\;L^{-1}$, and no chromium background concentration in groundwater samples was found from all geology.