Management of groundwater in farmed pond area using risk-based regulation

Blackfoot disease (BFD) had occurred seriously in the Yichu, Hsuehchia, Putai, and Peimen townships of Chia-Nan District of Taiwan in the early days. These four townships are the districts of fishpond cultivation domestically in Taiwan. Groundwater becomes the main water supply because of short income in surface water. The problems of over pumping in groundwater may not only result in land subsidence and seawater intrusion but also be harmful to the health of human giving rise to the bioaccumulation via food chain in groundwater with arsenic (As). This research uses sequential indicator simulation (SIS) to characterize the spatial arsenic distribution in groundwater in the four townships. Risk assessment is applied to explore the dilution ratio (DR) of groundwater utilization, which is defined as the ratio showing the volume of groundwater utilization compared to pond water, for fish farming in the range of target cancer risk (TR) especially on the magnitude of 10 ^-4∼10^-6. Our study results reveal that the 50th percentile of groundwater DRs served as a regulation standard can be used to perform fish farm groundwater management for a TR of 10^-6. For a TR of 5×10^-6, we suggest using the 75th percentile of DR for groundwater management. For a TR of 10^-5, we suggest using the 95th percentile of the DR standard for performing groundwater management in fish farm areas. For the TR of exceeding 5×10^-5, we do not suggest establishing groundwater management standards under these risk standards. Based on the research results, we suggest that establishing a TR at 10^-5 and using the 95th percentile of DR are best for groundwater management in fish farm areas.