Boletín de la Sociedad Geológica Mexicana Volumen 65, núm. 1, 2013, p. 9-26 http://dx.doi.org/10.18268/BSGM2013v65n1a2

Origen de la calidad del agua del acuífero colgado y su relación con los cambios de uso de suelo en el Valle de San Luis Potosí

Briseida López-Álvarez^1,2,*, José Alfredo Ramos-Leal², Janete Moran-Ramírez², Antonio Cardona Benavides³, Guillermo Hernández Garcia⁴

¹ Programa Agua y Sociedad. Colegio de San Luis, A. C. (COLSAN). Parque de Macul No. 155, Fracc. Colinas del Parque, San Luis Potosí, S.L.P. México, C.P. 78299.
² Geociencias Aplicadas. Instituto Potosino de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, A.C. (IPICYT), C. Presa San José # 2055, Lomas 4ª. Sección, CP 78216, San Luís Potosí, SLP, México.
³ Área de Ciencias de la Tierra de la Facultad de ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí.
⁴ Instituto de Geofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Ciudad Universitaria, 04510 Coyoacán, México, D. F.

^* This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract

The history of San Luis Potosi City dates back to the sixteenth century. With the discovery of gold and silver deposits and the presence of water bodies in the valley, the city of San Luis Minas Potosí was founded, leading to the first two uses of land: urban and mining. From the seventeenth century, agricultural land developed in orchards and, over time, was relegated to the periphery of the urban area. Finally, industrial land use emerged significantly in the second half of the twentieth century. Currently the three existing land uses within the Valley of San Luis Potosi are urban, agricultural and industrial.

Through a hydrogeochemical sampling campaign in October 2008 with 44 samples from wells and 3 from springs within the valley, we assessed physical and chemical parameters, cations, anions and trace elements.

In the three land uses within the study area, we detected significant levels of nitrates, sulphates, chlorides, electrical conductivity, total and fecal coliforms; but in urban areas there are punctual anomalies of heavy metals, mainly mercury, barium, strontium, cadmium, lead, phosphorus and silver related to former mining and active industry in the area. However, in the agricultural zone, the presence of metals is associated with open channels, which also receive water from the Tanque Tenorio and this in turn from the industrial area. In the industrial area, puntual anomalies were detected in almost all heavy analyzed metals; the main source of these pollutants corresponds to an active industrial area.

This work aims to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic activity in the perched aquifer of the Valley of San Luis Potosí since the city's foundation to the present, using water quality as an analytical tool.

Keywords: Change of land use, water quality, perched aquifer, mining, pollution.