Abstract

The Kütahya plain is one of the plains in Kütahya/Turkey, where drinking, agricultural and industrial water supplies are highly dependent on groundwater resources. The local popula- tion largely depends on water from alluvial shallow aquifer waters and some on the Felent and Porsuk rivers. Appraisal of surface and groundwater quality is extremely important to make sure the sustainable use of it for drinking, agricultural, and industrial purposes. The chemical quality of surface and groundwater of Kütahya plain has been studied in detail in order to have better understanding of potential water quality. A total of 21 groundwater samples and 6 surface water samples were collected in and around the plain. The relative abundance of major ions (meq/l) for most of the water samples were Ca2+ ˃Mg2+ ˃(Na++K+) for cations and HCO - ˃SO 2- ˃Cl- for anions. Five hydrochemical facies have been identified based on the major ion chemistry of the surface and groundwater of this area. However, based on hydrochemical facies, the type of water that predominates in the study area is Ca- Mg/Mg-Ca-HCO type during both December 2013 and June 2014. There is no significant change in the hydrochemical facies noticed during the two sampling periods. The chemical Index such as Sodium Absorption Ratio (SAR), Residual Sodium Carbonate (RSC), So- dium Percentage (%Na), Permeability Index (PI), Kelley Index (KI), Magnesium Ratio (MR), Potential Salinity (PS) and Total Hardness (TH) were calculated. The results indica- ted that SAR, RSC and KI values revealed 100%, %Na value revealed 92.6%, PI and PS values revealed 85.2% and MR value revealed 66.7% of water samples are within the safe limit suitable for irrigation. To sum up, the quality of surface and groundwater of Kütahya plain in general was suitable for irrigation.

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