Azzaya et al. 2017 - Kharaa river basin arsenic in water bodies
Azzaya and colleagues surveyed total arsenic and arsenic species in river, spring, and deep-well waters across the Kharaa river basin in Mongolia, with specific attention to gold-mining areas. This is a3 water-pathway evidence source: it does not measure a retail water product, but it quantifies arsenic occurrence in mining-influenced water bodies relevant to drinking-water and irrigation exposure pathways.
Key numbers
The study collected 100 water samples from river water, spring water, and deep wells in the Kharaa river basin. Along with total arsenic, the authors measured As(III) and As(V), 21 other heavy metals, pH, total hardness, electrical conductivity, and major anions/cations.
The abstract reports a Mongolian drinking-water standard of 10 micrograms/L for arsenic. Average total arsenic in surface water across the basin was 4.04 micrograms/L, with a range of 0.07-30.30 micrograms/L. Average total arsenic in groundwater was 2.24 micrograms/L.
In surface water from the licensed Gatsuurt gold-mining area, mean arsenic concentration was 24.90 micrograms/L, approximately 2 times the national permissible limit. In the Boroo River near the Boroo gold-mining area, arsenic concentrations ranged from 6.05-6.25 micrograms/L.
The paper also reports that geological formations and minerals affected heavy-metal concentrations, especially arsenic and uranium, in spring water near the Gatsuurt-Boroo improved road.
Methods (brief)
Water samples from rivers, springs, and deep wells in the Kharaa basin were analyzed for total arsenic, As(III), As(V), and a multi-metal panel together with standard water-quality parameters. The paper compares concentrations with the Mongolian National Drinking Water Quality Standard and discusses mining activity as an anthropogenic source alongside geologic controls.
Implications
Certification: Do not use these river-basin measurements as bottled-water or mineral-water product occurrence values. They are upstream water-pathway evidence in a mining-affected basin.
Courses: Useful for illustrating the distinction between basin water-quality surveillance and consumer-product occurrence, and for documenting how mining activity can elevate arsenic above drinking-water limits in specific local water bodies.
App: Context only for arsenic-water-pathway explanations.
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Verification notes
Recovered under the 2026-06-10 inclusion-by-default rule from a prior skip:not-target-cell lineage. The corrected scope treats mining-affected river-basin water surveillance as in-scope a3 pathway evidence.
Products and ingredients are intentionally empty because the paper measures basin waters rather than a market product. Arsenic is tagged as tAs because the paper measures total arsenic and speciates As(III)/As(V) in water, but the frontmatter metal slot here is meant to reflect the primary arsenic occurrence matrix rather than claim a consumer-product inorganic-arsenic value.
Page history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page. The full version history lives in git; when DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| e1768d5 | 2026-06-13 | recovery | azzaya2017 kharaa arsenic |