Inorganic Water Quality Monitoring Using Specific Conductance in Mexico

Five inorganic geochemical data sets with ion balances less than or equal to 5% (for different hydrogeologic basins in Mexico) were used to construct specific conductance (SC) vs. total dissolved solids (TDS) curves for each aquifer. These curves allow one to proxy the specific conductance for inorganic water quality. The data from these five curves were integrated to form a “global” curve for Mexico. The equation that defines the line is SC = 1.40 TDS + 18. We propose that, in addition to allowing ground water monitoring, establishing a SC vs. TDS curve may be implemented to monitor drinking water supplies such as wells and reservoirs. If anomalously high values are observed, this would warrant detailed geochemical sampling.