A. T. Batayneh / Natural Science 3 (2011) 28-35
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. OPEN ACCESS
3535
owing to dispersion of clay particles. Data of the SAR
and EC (Table 3) is plotted on the US salinity diagram
[13] (not shown here), in which EC is taken as salinity
hazard and SAR as alkalinity hazard. As shown in Table
3, the water samples 1, 6, 7, 22, 29, 32, 33 and 36 (for
spring name see Table 1) fall in the C3S1 quality, which
have high salinity hazard but low sodium hazard. On the
other hand, samples 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 31, 34
and 35 (for spring name see Table 1) lie in C2S1, which
corresponds to medium salinity hazard and low sodium
hazard.
The values of soluble sodium percentage (SSP) are in
range between 18 and 35. Based on residual sodium
carbonate (RSC) criterion, all the studied water springs
are found to be in suitable class (Table 3). All the stud-
ied samples show negative values of RSC, which indi-
cates that the dissolved calcium and magnesium contents
are higher than carbonate and bicarbonate contents.
4. CONCLUSIONS
In order to chalk out a concrete strategy (including
planning, development and management) about the wa-
ter resources in northern Jordan, water samples collected
from all major springs of the Yarmouk Basin are evalu-
ated by this study. No harmful constituents including
salinity and toxicity have been detected in the water of
the study area. According to all quality determining pa-
rameters and their comparison with set criteria, water of
the study area could safely be used for irrigation and
drinking purposes. In terms of Fe concentration, all
samples are found below the maximum permissible limit
of 1 mg/l. The quality determining factors, i.e., SAR,
SSP, RSC, TDS and EC are strongly compatible with
each others.
5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank Dr. H. Zaman from the Department of
Geology and Geophysics, King Saud University and two anonymous
reviewers for comments that greatly improved this manuscript. Facili-
ties provided by the Department of Geology and Geophysics, King
Saud University, Saudi Arabia are acknowledged.
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