Overexploitation and water quality in the Crevillente aquifer (Alicante, SE Spain)

Abstract

The Crevillente aquifer is a karstic aquifer, situated in Alicante province in the SE of Spain. The aquifer basically comprises a series of Jurassic limestones and dolomites, belonging to the Betic Cordillera. Intense exploitation of the aquifer started in the early 1960s. Exploitation was initially concentrated in two sectors of the Sierra de Crevillente and, years later, extended to a third sector. As a consequence of abstractions that were much greater than recharge into the system, a continual drop in the water level persisted for several decades. These abstractions have occasionally caused local dewatering over depths of more than 300 m. From a hydrogeological point of view, the aquifer dewatering in one of the sectors was accompanied by increased mineralization and a fall in quality of the groundwater, and several boreholes had to be abandoned. In recent years, the degree to which the aquifer is overexploited has fallen considerably, and it appears to have entered a new hydrodynamic stage. New hydrogeochemical characterisations have been carried out, which indicate that the aquifer water is relatively strongly mineralised due, fundamentally, to the dissolution of evaporite rocks. On the other hand, deterioration in water quality as a consequence of the degree of overabstraction can also be confirmed