Identification of sources of chemical constituents in groundwater from the Vilnius wellfields, Lithuania

The only source of drinking water in Vilnius City, Lithuania's capital, is groundwater. It can be supplied from 20 wellfields situated in the City or its environs. About half of them (11) are located in the valley of the Neris River crossing the City. The exploited aquifers were formed by melting continental glaciers and modified by the river. Until 1990 groundwater resources had not been conserved—the per capita consumption for domestic use in Vilnius reached 350 l/day. After 1990, due to the increasing cost of supplying drinking water, its consumption was reduced by a factor of three. As pumping rates of wellfields in Vilnius were increased or decreased, the groundwater quality was changed significantly. It is mainly affected by the surface water and shallow aquifers of the hydrologic system. The unoxidised organic matter that enters the exploitable aquifers from rivers and polluted shallow groundwater consumes scarce oxygen resources, thus creating anoxic conditions favourable for increasing the accumulation of iron, manganese and ammonium. Modelling and monitoring data show that the concentrations of sulphates and chlorides in Vilnius wellfields indicate not only the rise of brackish water from below, but also downward seepage of polluted surface water into the aquifers.     

On the Tolerances of Filters for GAIA Medium Band Photometric System

We investigate the effects arising from the filter transmission curve differences across the filter area in the 3G medium-band photometric system proposed for GAIA. We discuss the accuracy of the transformations to the standard photometric system and the precision of the determination of physical parameters for various types of stars using the 4-D classification procedure. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.