Multivariate statistical analysis to assess groundwater quality in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India

Seventy three groundwater samples were collected covering all the blocks of the district except structural hills during premonsoon season of the year 2007. Samples were tested for the parameters "EC, Turbidity, pH, Total Hardness, Iron, Chlorides, Total Dissolved Solids, Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium Manganese, Sulphate, Nitrate, Nitrite and Total Alkalinity. Hydrochemical facies were studied using Piper's trilinear diagram and the groundwater type was found to be mixed type. Hydrochemical parameters are further studied using statistical tools such as descriptive, correlation and cluster analyses. Parameter TDS had shown its dominance in all the analyses. The concentration of TDS, its correlations with major cations and anions and grouping of other parameters have shown that the concentration TDS has influenced the categorization of groundwater of the study area as mixed type.