en بهداشت محیط زیست Environmental Health پژوهشي Original Article <p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i><b>Background and Purpose: </b></i></font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Elevated nitrate concentrations in drinking water can cause&nbsp;</font></font><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">methemoglobinemia in infants, stomach cancer in adults and nitrate poisoning in animals as well.&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">Modeling of nitrate fate and transport in groundwater to minimize nitrate concentration in&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">groundwater has been studied by numerous researchers.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i><b>Materials and Methods: </b></i></font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">In order to determine the potential nitrate and nitrite ions contamination&nbsp;</font></font><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">of groundwater, 93 groundwater samples were collected. All the observation wells were located&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">in agricultural areas. In order to measure the amount of nitrogen in the soil, 45 samples from the&nbsp;</span><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">entire region were randomly selected and analyzed</font></font><font face="TimesNewRoman" size="3"><font face="TimesNewRoman" size="3">.</font></font></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i><b>Results: </b></i></font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The results showed that in 82% of groundwater samples nitrate concentration has exceeded&nbsp;</font></font><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">the standard level of 10 mg/l as N. Water level in orchard fields were between 1m to 3.7 m below the&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">ground surface. Nitrate concentration in all samples from the citrus orchard fell within the standard&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">levels. Simulation of potential nitrate movement was performed in 4 different areas. Results indicated&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">that in the rice field nitrate penetrated to the depth of 3.2 m that was the deepest nitrate seepage&nbsp;</span><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">between four areas. Probable reasons of different results in these areas are discussed.</span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><i><b>Conclusion: </b></i></font></font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The simulated and observed measured data showed that the model was able to&nbsp;</font></font><span style="font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: medium;">predict the groundwater quality changes within the soil profile and the aquifer.&nbsp;</span></p> Groundwater, Contamination, Nitrate, Iran, Modeling 1 9 http://jhs.mazums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-424-4&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Majid Ehteshami maehtesh@gmail.com 10031947532846004723 10031947532846004723 Yes Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Nader Biglarijoo 10031947532846004724 10031947532846004724 No Khaje Nasir Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran