Impact of cemeteries in groundwater qualit N. Cortez, F. Pinheiro, C

[P3.38]
Impact of cemeteries in groundwater qualit
N. Cortez, F. Pinheiro, C. Santos, A. Ferreira, J. Figueiredo, N. Sá*
Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Coimbra, Portugal
The activities of burial of corpses have been considered activities contaminated, such as
cemeteries must be considered potentially contaminated areas, and it is extremely important to
be observed and thus the central objective of this research is to assess water quality funding of
private cemeteries located near the Parishes of St.Martin the Bishop, Santa Clara and St. Paul
of the Friars, the Municipality of Coimbra, and assess the level of awareness of users about the
quality of this water. Were collected and analyzed water samples from 15 wells, boreholes and
springs randomly chosen near the cemetery each parish and was applied a questionnaire to
assess the external factors that could be contributing to the contamination of water catchments
and to evaluate which perception of the population with respect to the subjects addressed by
this study. From the results obtained, it was found that the presence of a cemetery may cause
contamination of groundwater, particularly with respect to microbial quality ( total coliforms and
fecal coliforms), but other sources of contamination (eg, pits septic and poor agricultural
practices) may be a factor that changes the quality of the water. Given these results it is
necessary to perform a control of water quality in existing funding and the funding provided in
the direction in which water flows in order to characterize the existence of possible
contamination, their characteristics, extent and rate of spread, bearing in mind that also
important that there is an ongoing study of the quality of their own land.
Keywords: Environmental Impact, Graveyards, Groundwater, Water Quality