Groundwater quality - saltwater intrusions

Saline groundwater can lead to serious problems for water supply, especially under arid climatic conditions. To define saline groundwater, Grube et al. (2000) proposed a concentration of chloride exceeding 250 mg/l. Since the electrical conductivity of water is strongly related to the salt concentration, the EU-directive on water quality (1998) sets an upper limit of 2500 μS/cm for the electrical conductivity of drinking water.