Assessment of groundwater quality, toxicity and health risk in an industrial area using multivariate statistical methods

Background This study investigates the common and anthropogenic activities that impact the science of groundwater in and around an industrial zone and exhibits the utilization of multivariate statistical methods for groundwater quality, toxicity and health risk associated with contaminated industrial sites for proficient administration of water assets. A total of 120 groundwater samples were collected during summer and winter season, and analyzed for their twenty physicochemical constituents including seven toxic heavy metals (pH, EC, total dissolved solids (TDS), F, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, CO3, HCO3, NO3, SO4, As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn). Data obtained was treated using principal component analysis (PCA)/factor analysis (FA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), Correlation coefficient and health risk analysis to find the common pollution source.