Anthropic and Meteorological Controls on the Origin and Quality of Water at a Bank Filtration Site in Canada

Abstract

At many bank filtration (BF) sites, mixing ratios between the contributing sources of water are typically regarded as values with no temporal variation, even though hydraulic conditions and pumping regimes can be transient. This study illustrates how anthropic and meteorological forcings influence the origin of the water of a BF system that interacts with two lakes (named A and B). The development of a time-varying binary mixing model based on electrical conductivity (EC) allowed the estimation of mixing ratios over a year. A sensitivity analysis quantified the importance of considering the temporal variability of the end-members for reliable results. The model revealed that the contribution from Lake A may vary from 0% to 100%. At the wells that were operated continuously at >1000 m3/day, the contribution from Lake A stabilized between 54% and 78%. On the other hand, intermittent and occasional pumping regimes caused the mixing ratios to be controlled by indirect anthropic and/or meteorological forcing. The flow conditions have implications for the quality of the bank filtrate, as highlighted via the spatiotemporal variability of total Fe and Mn concentrations. We therefore propose guidelines for rapid decision-making regarding the origin and quality of the pumped drinking water.