Groundwater Pollution: Sources, Mechanisms, and Prevention

Abstract

Groundwater pollution, caused or induced by human activities, is a phenomenon that has occurred since the earliest Holocene, about 10,000 years ago, when mankind became sedentary and began to settle villages and farm the land. As a consequence, relevant amounts of nitrogen were released into groundwater from farming activities, and microbial pathogens and bacteria were also spread in the aquifers from sanitary disposal of domestic waste. Since then, agriculture and urbanization have expanded and intensified through time due to population growth, and with them the associated groundwater pollution. Industry is another relevant humanactivity that impairs groundwater quality. In this regard, ancient civilizations that mined for gemstones, gold, silver, copper, and lead were responsible for releasing essentially inorganic compounds into groundwater bodies.