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Science 22 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5598, pp. 1602 - 1606
DOI: 10.1126/science.1076978
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Reports

Arsenic Mobility and Groundwater Extraction in Bangladesh

Charles F. Harvey,1 Christopher H. Swartz,1* A. B. M. Badruzzaman,2 Nicole Keon-Blute,1 Winston Yu,1 M. Ashraf Ali,2 Jenny Jay,1 Roger Beckie,3 Volker Niedan,1 Daniel Brabander,1dagger Peter M. Oates,1 Khandaker N. Ashfaque,1 Shafiqul Islam,4 Harold F. Hemond,1 M. Feroze Ahmed2

High levels of arsenic in well water are causing widespread poisoning in Bangladesh. In a typical aquifer in southern Bangladesh, chemical data imply that arsenic mobilization is associated with recent inflow of carbon. High concentrations of radiocarbon-young methane indicate that young carbon has driven recent biogeochemical processes, and irrigation pumping is sufficient to have drawn water to the depth where dissolved arsenic is at a maximum. The results of field injection of molasses, nitrate, and low-arsenic water show that organic carbon or its degradation products may quickly mobilize arsenic, oxidants may lower arsenic concentrations, and sorption of arsenic is limited by saturation of aquifer materials.

1 Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 01239, USA.
2 Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
3 Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada.
4 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.
*   Present address: Silent Spring Institute, Newton, MA 02458, USA.

dagger    Present address: Environmental, Coastal and Ocean Sciences Department, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA 02125, USA.

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Comment on "Arsenic Mobility and Groundwater Extraction in Bangladesh" (II).
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